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Police arrest 75 in foreigner registration, construction certificate forgery ring bust

Published: 23 Dec. 2025, 16:56

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Provincial Special Detective Corps' office in Mapo District, western Seoul [JOONGANG ILBO]

Police arrested a forgery ring suspected of selling fake foreigner registration cards and construction certificates to workers from overseas, as well as dozens of people who allegedly used the documents to gain employment, authorities said on Tuesday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s metropolitan investigation unit said it apprehended 75 people in total and kept two of them in detention in connection with the counterfeit scheme. Police are still tracking the ringleader, who is believed to hold Chinese and Vietnamese citizenship.

Most of those arrested were Chinese nationals, accounting for 52 people. The suspects also included nationals of Nepal, Vietnam and the Philippines, police said. Five of those arrested were staying in Korea illegally.

The two that were detained were a Vietnamese national who worked as a team leader at construction sites and a Chinese national who allegedly handled money laundering for the group. Authorities did not detain a Korean national who worked at construction sites, recruited foreign workers and is suspected of arranging forged documents for them.

Police referred the suspects to prosecutors on charges including forging official and private documents.

Examples of counterfeit documents made by a ringleader of a forgery ring [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

The 72 foreign nationals who were arrested allegedly ordered forged documents and used them to find work at construction sites and entertainment venues. Of those, 16 are accused of ordering fake alien registration cards, 21 are suspected of ordering counterfeit national technical qualification certificates and 35 are believed to have ordered forged basic safety and health education certificates. Some ordered multiple documents, police said.

Police charged most of the arrested individuals with forgery and using forged documents and said they would soon refer the remaining two or three suspects to prosecutors.

An official from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Provincial Special Detective Corps briefs reporters on the arrest of foreign nationals and brokers involved in forging state-issued certificates at the agency’s headquarters in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Dec. 23. [YONHAP]

The police said the sellers recruited clients through social media. The ringleader is suspected of forging documents in China and Vietnam, while the money-laundering operative reportedly collected payments and transferred the money to the ringleader. The ringleader then sent the forged documents by international courier to the distributor, who passed them on to clients in Korea, police said.

The group is accused of forging documents for 72 people over about 14 months, from May last year to July this year, charging between 70,000 won and 150,000 won ($45 to $100) per document, police said.

A police official said authorities were continuing to pursue the ringleader, but added that investigators had not yet identified the individual and believed the operation involved more than one person at the top.

“We have not determined the exact forgery methods, but the counterfeit documents closely resembled authentic ones,” the official said, adding, “[If construction workers are hired] using forged certificates, it could easily result in construction defects, so we urge sites to conduct careful checks."

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM CHANG-YONG [[email protected]]