Optimus Investigation Team... Launches Effort to Recover 'Criminal Proceeds'

Focusing on Recovering 'Missing Funds' Including Embezzled Money... Considering Cooperation with the Financial Supervisory Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The prosecution investigating the Optimus Asset Management fund fraud case has determined some of the invested funds as 'criminal proceeds' through account tracing and has begun recovery efforts. With the release of the Optimus fund accounting audit results, they are also considering cooperating with the Financial Supervisory Service to restore losses for general investors.

According to the legal community on the 12th, the Economic Crime Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jumincheol) has started reviewing whether it is possible to recover funds from the 500 billion KRW scale Optimus fund that can be considered criminal proceeds. Earlier this month, the investigation team began detailed account tracing of the Optimus investment funds. The team expanded to 19 members, focusing on tracing fund flows and identifying related parties and affiliates, aside from lobbying suspicions, concentrating on the fund fraud aspect.

The investigation team, which had previously narrowed down specific investment destinations through the investigation, now views some of the dispersed funds as criminal proceeds. If the investigation agency determines the identified victim assets as criminal proceeds, they can be frozen through the prosecutor's request for confiscation and seizure preservation and a court decision. A team official explained, "Additional work is needed to confirm whether the identified funds can be considered criminal proceeds, but since preemptive measures such as confiscation are possible, it will help in damage recovery."

In fact, since the revision of the 'Special Act on the Confiscation and Recovery of Corrupt Property' in August last year, victims can recover their assets after the criminal trial is finalized without going through civil lawsuits and compulsory execution processes. Although limited to cases such as ▲organizing a criminal group to commit crimes ▲deception through quasi-deposit or multi-level marketing methods ▲cases corresponding to telecommunication financial fraud, the investigation team currently regards the Optimus incident as fundamentally a Ponzi (multi-level) fraud structure. The addition of one prosecutor from the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Division to the investigation team last week was also a measure to accelerate the confirmation of criminal proceeds.

The problem lies in the actual recovery process. Even according to the Optimus fund audit results released by the Financial Supervisory Service the day before, out of the 514.6 billion KRW principal invested by fund subscribers, only 351.5 billion KRW was invested in the final destinations. The remaining 160 billion KRW is understood to have been embezzled, used for circular financing, operating expenses, or hidden by the group involved in the Optimus fraud and the companies through which the funds passed.

Accordingly, the investigation team is expected to focus on tracing the whereabouts of the 160 billion KRW, which has effectively become 'missing money.' A team official said, "We are continuously examining fund flows that the Financial Supervisory Service could not find," and added, "We expect to find additional overlooked parts by referring to this audit content."

Cooperation with the Financial Supervisory Service is also expected during the investigation process. The Financial Supervisory Service needs to assess the scale and timing of the damage, but the legal responsibility of the fund sales company, trustee, and administrative company must be clarified first. The investigation team believes that excluding lobbying suspicions, cooperation with the Financial Supervisory Service and others will accelerate the investigation of the fund fraud part.

However, the legal community believes that it will take considerable time for victims to recover their principal. Although the audit has been completed, the final compensation amount must be decided after determining responsibility through litigation. The criminal proceeds that the investigation team will secure and confiscate in the future are also expected to be returned to investors, but some funds with unclear responsibility may be recovered into the national treasury. A lawyer in Seocho-dong stated, "Since this is not a simple multi-level financial case but involves examining connections to political lobbying, it is expected that the legal review process to distinguish responsibility and the trial itself will take a long time."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.