SEOUL: South Korean police said today they have arrested a man who faked his own death — and cremation — to secure insurance payouts totalling 1.8 billion won ($1.5 million).

Police said a man surnamed Chung, 51 and his wife, Ahn, 49, hatched the scheme after their business in Indonesia ran into trouble. The wife made life insurance

claims to six Korean companies after reporting that her husband had died in a motorcycle accident on Batam island in Indonesia.

The Korea Times said the couple bribed Indonesian doctors to supply a death certificate and submitted it to the Korean embassy in Jakarta. Ahn also videotaped a “cremation ceremony” for Chung to bolster her claim.

A policewoman in Seoul’s Namdaemun district said they have also issued a warrant for the couple’s nephew as an accessory to the fraud. “There have been a few insurance frauds faking death in Korea, but this was the first time for such a case abroad,” she said, declining to be identified.

Insurance scams are common in South Korea, with the number of fake claims rising amid the economic downturn. In a case reported by police in April, a woman held a funeral for her husband claiming he was lost at sea and scammed insurers out of $800,000 before he was found alive.