A South Korean court has jailed a man for two years for spraying rotten food waste and human excrement on a victim’s house — in exchange for just $541 worth of crypto.
The man, aged 20, also scattered defamatory leaflets alleging the victim was a recently released sex offender, South Korean newspaper Joongang Ilbo reported.
“The defendant acted on the instructions of a so-called revenge agency,” prosecutors told the court. “He broke into the apartment complex of a victim he had never met, vandalised the front door with red spray paint, and left leaflets containing obscene content and false allegations of criminality for [the victim’s neighbours to see].”
Police have made a series of arrests relating to Telegram-based revenge agencies, which offer to murder, maim, or publicly shame people on behalf of anonymous, USDT-paying “customers.”
But these criminal networks continue to operate, with masterminds commissioning an increasingly macabre array of vengeance-fuelled attacks.
Defamatory leaflets
Prosecutors explained that the man broke into the complex in Dongtan New Town, Gyeonggi Province, on February 22.
Once inside the building, he also vandalised the front door of the victim’s 15th-floor apartment with red spray paint.
“The leaflets had been designed to make it seem as if the victim was a person who had committed a sex crime and just been released from prison,” prosecutors said.
Under South Korean law, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family must send paper notifications to residents when a convicted sex offender takes up residence in a new area.
These leaflets typically include the offender’s full name, a photograph, their address, and details of their crimes.
The man was tried at Suwon District Court, which withheld his name for legal reasons, South Korean broadcaster YTN reported.
The court heard that the man was a convicted youth offender who had previously received a suspended sentence for another offense.
The man told the court he had acted on behalf of a Telegram-based group calling itself the “Grudge Resolution Office.” This group had offered to pay him in crypto upon completion, the man said.
The victim was not named, and police have yet to determine who paid the “Grudge Resolution Office” to commission the crime.
Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.