[Exclusive] Yoon Seok-yeol, Prosecutor General, Orders Installation of 'Hwanbu Dedicated Prosecutors' at All District Prosecutors' Offices

Ahead of Disciplinary Committee, Organizational Management Accelerates... Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Begins Discussion on Designating Dedicated Prosecutors

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol has instructed all regional prosecutors' offices nationwide to appoint 'dedicated restitution prosecutors.' Restitution work involves recovering criminal proceeds and returning them to victims, reflecting the increasing number of property damage cases such as the Optimus fund fraud. Even with the disciplinary committee meeting just two days away, Yoon is accelerating the management of the prosecution organization, emphasizing the reporting and command system following the death of a close aide to Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

According to the legal community on the 8th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently created guidelines to appoint 'dedicated restitution prosecutors' and 'dedicated restitution investigators' and distributed them to all district prosecutors' offices and branch offices nationwide.

Currently, under the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crimes Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Division is responsible for tracking and recovering criminal proceeds under the Prosecutor General's instructions. However, as cases of organized fraud through criminal groups have increased and the resulting damages have grown, there have been ongoing internal and external calls to systematically manage the procedures for returning recovered criminal proceeds.

Reflecting this, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office has assigned dedicated restitution prosecutors to each district prosecutor's office to manage recovered assets and oversee the entire restitution decision process. Dedicated restitution investigators will also be placed in the respective offices to support this work. Depending on the scale of the case, a dedicated restitution team can also be formed. From the victims' perspective, this not only provides assistance during the confiscation and seizure of damaged property but also reduces the risk of unfair treatment such as overpayments.

The newly established dedicated restitution prosecutors are likely to be first deployed in the Optimus investigation currently underway at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. As the largest district prosecutor's office nationwide, the Central District Prosecutors' Office began discussing designating prosecutors from the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Division as dedicated restitution prosecutors and investigators from the Victim Support Division of the Secretariat as dedicated restitution investigators immediately after receiving Yoon's directive.

Moreover, the Economic Crime Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, which is investigating the Optimus case, is currently discussing the recovery process after determining some of the invested funds traced through account tracking to be 'criminal proceeds.' The addition of one prosecutor from the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Division to the investigation team last month was also a measure to accelerate the identification of criminal proceeds.

There is also growing interest in the background of Yoon accelerating organizational management just days before the disciplinary committee that will decide his own position. After the death of Lee's close aide, Yoon issued a special directive to all prosecutors' offices nationwide, stating, "For important cases, start investigations only after prior reporting to and receiving instructions from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office." If clues to separate criminal facts are discovered during the investigation, detailed checks must be conducted and approval from superiors obtained before proceeding with the investigation.

This also appears to be a preparation for the possibility that Yoon may receive a severe disciplinary sanction at the committee. Restitution of criminal proceeds is an area Yoon has consistently emphasized as "the starting point of a new investigative paradigm." During his tenure as head of the Central District Prosecutors' Office, he directly established the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Division within the organization and expanded the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. This is interpreted as his intention to organize pending tasks before the disciplinary committee.

A Supreme Prosecutors' Office official stated, "The organizational management plan related to criminal proceeds has already been discussed and prepared, and additional measures are also underway," adding, "We plan to focus on establishing policies that align with the fundamental task of protecting socially vulnerable groups and actively implementing them."

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