MANILA, Philippines - Sixteen Filipinos, including 12 flight attendants and a moneychanger, are in trouble in Seoul over illegal remittances, according to South Korea's Yonhap News.

Yonhap reported the Filipinos have been booked by police on suspicion they were handling illegal remittances for their fellow Filipinos and pocketing commission fees.

According to police, one of the Filipinos is a 59-year-old unregistered moneychanger, whose name has been withheld.

The moneychanger is suspected of having exchanged some 3.2 billion won ($2.85 million) into dollars for some 2,900 Filipino workers in various parts of Korea between January 2009 and December 2011, according to the international crime investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

The moneychanger would handle the remittances from Filipino workers, but would unfairly pocket currency gains. He worked with several flight attendants, who would bring the dollars back to the Philippines, for a fee of $50.

A report from Maeil Business Newspaper quoted a Korean police officer as saying that illegal Filipino workers in Korea sent their remittances through this process since they do not have the proper legal documents to do bank transactions for overseas remittance. Filipino workers have also complained of Korean banks' high fees and complicated procedures for sending remittances back home.

There are some 45,000 Filipinos living and working throughout South Korea.