I let someone use my Korean crypto exchange account and now I have a police summons — I'm on an E-7. How serious is this?

What you did wrong, in the eyes of Korean law, is turn your bank account and your exchange account into a channel for someone else's money — and the money, the police believe, came from fraud victims. The offense does not require that you scammed anyone. It is serious: the statute the letter names carries a heavy maximum, and the frozen accounts mean at least one victim has traced funds to you. It is also a well-understood category of case in which the outcome for a person who was used, paid a small percentage, and kept records ranges from a closed file to a fine — provided the first interview is handled with those records in hand rather than from memory.

What this is under Korean law

The letter refers to the Act on Prevention of Telecommunications-based Financial Fraud (통신사기피해환급법, tongsin sagi pihae hwangeup-beop). Since amendments strengthening it, that Act penalizes not only the fraud itself but acts that facilitate it — receiving, withdrawing, transferring or converting funds obtained by telecommunications fraud — with up to ten years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 100 million. Converting victims' won into crypto and sending it to a wallet is the textbook "laundering" step that voice-phishing and investment-scam operations outsource to people like you.

Two further provisions are usually charged alongside. The Electronic Financial Transactions Act (전자금융거래법) prohibits lending or transferring an access medium (접근매체, jeopgeun maeche) — allowing someone else to use your account is caught even where you kept the credentials. And aiding fraud (사기방조, sagi bangjo) under Articles 347 and 32 of the Criminal Act is charged where the police believe you knew or accepted the possibility that the funds were criminal proceeds (미필적 고의, milpiljeok goui). That last question — what you knew or should have suspected — is the whole case.

How the process works in Korea

The cybercrime unit has victims' transfer records ending in your account and exchange records showing the conversion. The interview will test what you knew: why he could not verify himself, why the percentage, what he told you, whether the sums matched a trader's pattern or a victim's, and why you did not stop. The police then refer the case to the prosecutor (송치, songchi) or close it. First-time facilitators who were themselves deceived, kept complete records, did not profit meaningfully, and cooperated have received suspensions of indictment (기소유예, giso yuye) or fines; those who traded for a cut with willful blindness have received prison sentences. That is a range, not a prediction, and where you sit in it is argued from the chat history.

The freezes are a payment-suspension (지급정지, jigeup jeongji) under the same Act; victims can claim balances through a refund procedure. The freeze is lifted or the account closed depending on the case; funds that were victims' are not yours in any outcome.

Your situation as a foreign national

A departure suspension (출국정지, chulguk jeongji) is commonly requested in telecommunications fraud cases; assume it is in place and confirm before any travel. You are entitled to an interpreter at the interview and to have counsel present.

On the E-7: an investigation does not end it. A conviction or fine is a fact the Immigration Office considers at extension and in status review, and fraud-related offenses are weighed seriously; those outcomes are decided by the Immigration Office, not the court, and we do not predict them. Your employer is not notified by the police; a frozen account that stops receiving salary will need an explanation, and "a bank matter under review" is true. MEGA X handles the criminal case; where it affects your status, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of your defense.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not delete anything. Export the entire chat with the acquaintance, the trading group history, every transfer and every exchange transaction with timestamps, and the wallet addresses. Do not contact him. Do not attend the interview without counsel; the difference between "he told me he had bank issues" and "I assumed it was fine" is the difference between the two ends of the range above, and it is a difference of documented fact, not tone. Prepare your account with your lawyer before the interview, and have a second account ready for salary.

From a former police investigator's perspective

Cybercrime investigators sort crypto-conversion suspects with a few questions they already know the answers to: how many transfers, how fast the conversion, how much the cut, whether the sums were round, whether the suspect ever asked who the senders were, and whether he kept doing it after something looked wrong. A dozen transfers in two months for a small percentage, with a complete chat showing a plausible story and no questions asked, is a facilitator who was used — and investigators, who spend their days chasing the operators, know the difference. What they cannot know is what is in a chat you have not yet shown them.

Six months to your renewal is enough time to close this properly if the interview goes right. Contact us before the summons date — text consultation or +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Criminal Defense Team