A restaurant owner who repeatedly failed to pay employees and transferred ownership of the establishment for key money has been arrested after nearly a year on the run.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the suspect, identified as A, operated a restaurant, hired staff, and then failed to pay wages while selling the restaurant to a third party for key money.
Police began tracking A about six months ago after receiving reports from victims who had not received their wages. The victims told police, "We reported to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, but we cannot catch A. Dozens of us have not received our wages."
Based on A's personal information, police sent over ten official requests to relevant agencies and confirmed eight outstanding warrants. They also monitored CCTV footage from an apartment suspected to be A's residence to trace their whereabouts.
A was found to have been living away from their registered address for about a year, aware of the warrants against them. They used a vehicle registered under a family member's name to evade police.
However, during the investigation, police discovered that A had recently purchased and was driving an electric vehicle registered in their own name. After spotting A's vehicle during a foot patrol, police pursued and apprehended A at a residence in Uijeongbu on the afternoon of October 27.
Police have transferred A, who had an arrest warrant issued against them, to the relevant authorities. The Ministry of Employment and Labor is currently investigating the allegations of wage theft.
A police official stated, "Although this case is handled by another agency, we believed there were many victims, so we continued to pursue the investigation. After internal meetings, we conducted surveillance and continued our investigation, leading to the arrest."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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