A South Korean court sentenced a Chinese citizen identified in reports as 37-year-old Jeon Mo to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for engaging in a hacking theft scheme targeting prominent wealthy South Koreans, including a member of the superstar boy band BTS.
The criminal enterprise, the court found, targeted wealthy individuals who were in prison, active in the military, or otherwise lacking regular access to their accounts, breaking into them and redirecting financial assets to accounts unrelated to the victims that the criminals controlled. Jungkook, the BTS member identified as a target of the crimes, was fulfilling his mandatory military service at the time that the criminals attempted to steal his money. All members of the band fulfilled their military obligations beginning in 2022, during which they announced a hiatus; this concluded in March when they launched their currently ongoing world tour. The hacking ring reportedly conducted its crimes between August 2023 and January 2025.
Jungkook successfully completed his military service alongside fellow BTS member Jimin in June 2025, greeted outside of his army division headquarters by applauding fans handing them flowers and celebrating their return to civilian life.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been in front of a camera, and I’m a bit embarrassed because I didn’t even put on makeup, so I don’t know what to say,” he joked at the time.
According to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, Jean Mo was convicted of fraud and of violating the Information and Communications Network Act for internet crimes.
“Jeon Mo is accused of forming a hacking organization overseas and illegally collecting personal information of domestic wealthy individuals from August 2023 to January 2025,” Chosun explained. “He then opened mobile phone lines in their names and accessed financial accounts and virtual asset accounts, embezzling approximately 38 billion Korean won [over $27.2 million].”
“[Chun] targeted wealthy individuals and stole their assets,” the court said in its ruling. “The victims lost their assets despite bearing no fault, unlike in voice phishing scams.”
Jungkook was not among those who lost assets due to security protocols kicking in and preventing a suspicious transfer. According to police information, the hackers attempted to use the singer’s personal information to steal 8.4 billion won (about $6 million) in shares of HYBE, the parent company of BTS’s BigHit Music record label, belonging to the singer. Automated security measures reportedly paused the sale of the assets given the dubious nature of the attempted transfer.
“The company and artist immediately implemented payment suspension and restoration measures upon detecting the crime, preventing actual damage,” BigHit Music said in a statement when the news of the attempted theft broke. “Separately from legal actions, we have strengthened security measures for artists’ personal and device information to prevent recurrence.”
South Korea’s National Police Agency announced in May that it had arrested two individuals believed to be associated with a hacker-theft scheme that matches the description of the one the court ruled on this week. At the time, the police described the mastermind of the hacker ring as a 40-year-old Chinese citizen with the initial “A” whose group was operating out of Thailand. Both “A” and another individual identified as a “Chinese national in his 30s,” who matches the profile of Jeon Mo, was also arrested and extradited in August 2025.
“We extradited A (40, Chinese national), the mastermind of a hacking group that stole over 38 billion Korean won from financial and virtual asset accounts by hacking multiple websites, from Bangkok, Thailand, to Incheon International Airport this morning,” the national police and Justice Ministry said in a joint statement in May.
At the time they identified the prospective victims of the cybercrime as “individuals in prison or the military,” particularly “domestic corporate executives in custody, entertainers, athletes, and high-net-worth individuals residing overseas or serving in the military.”
Chosun Ilbo reported this week that, during his trial, Jeon Mo insisted that he was not the mastermind of the plot, identifying his boss as “Han Sung.” Prosecutors could not, however, find any individual that matched the identity of “Han Sung,” nor could they find evidence to confirm the existence of that person.
No reports on the criminal enterprise in South Korean media indicate that the hacker ring has been found to have any association with the Communist Party of China. The members of BTS have previously been the targets of a hate campaign by the Chinese government, however, that sought to diminish their prodigious level of fame in the country. In 2020, Chinese state media launched a campaign to disparage BTS after the group received the Korea Society’s James A. Van Fleet Award and used their acceptance speech to thank the United States for over half a century of military support of South Korea.
“We will always remember the history of pain that our two nations shared together and the sacrifices of countless men and women,” band member RM said during the event.
Outraged Chinese communists demanded that RM also thank China, despite China fighting against South Korea in the Korean War alongside communist North Korea, which invaded its southern neighbor to start the war. The Chinese government shut down the largest BTS fan sites on regime-controlled social media in 2021, claiming that they were toxic to the social atmosphere, and that year launched a competition to create a boy band to rival BTS called CHUANG 2021.
The show attracted viewers not for the talent of the prospective pop icons, but because of a contestant named Vladislav Ivanov alias Lelush, who claimed on television that he was forced to sign a contract to participate and had no interest in being in a boy band.
Viewers voted him into the finals of the competition to punish him for intentionally low-quality performances that he delivered in the hopes of being eliminated and freed from the competition.
While Lelush did not make it into the final band lineup, the show did result in the creation of a band called INTO1, which broke up after its contractually mandated active period concluded in 2023.
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