Government to Conduct Special Crackdown on Illegal Virtual Asset Activities from April to June: "Beware of Money Laundering and Fraud"

<제목>Inter-Ministerial Meeting on Virtual Assets under the Pan-Government Initiative

Koo Yoon-chul, Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination
Photo by Yonhap News

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] The government will conduct a special crackdown on illegal activities related to virtual assets until June. As virtual asset prices soar, increasing the possibility of illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud, the government has decided to focus on monitoring suspicious transactions.

On the 19th, the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced that April to June will be designated as the "Special Crackdown Period on Illegal Activities Related to Virtual Assets" at the government-wide level. First, financial companies will conduct primary monitoring of withdrawal transactions following virtual asset trades. If suspicious illegal transactions are detected, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) will analyze them and notify relevant investigative agencies and tax authorities, strengthening cooperation for crackdown and investigation.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance will work with the Financial Supervisory Service and others to strengthen inspections for violations of related laws such as the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

Additionally, the police will focus on cracking down on illegal multi-level marketing and investment fraud. Dedicated departments will be subdivided according to types of illegal virtual asset activities, and through expanding the distribution of virtual asset tracking programs and enhancing investigative expertise, illegal activities will be intensively targeted.

The Fair Trade Commission plans to conduct ex officio investigations into the terms and conditions of virtual asset service providers and correct unfair terms that are disadvantageous to investors. The Korea Communications Commission, in cooperation with the Financial Services Commission and related ministries, intends to block the distribution of illegal information online, such as virtual asset-related investment fraud, unauthorized fundraising, and unregistered virtual asset business activities.

Furthermore, the government will check the progress of registration for existing virtual asset service providers, which has been deferred until September 24, and continue to build infrastructure for virtual asset income taxation to be implemented from January next year. To allow the public to check the registration status of virtual asset service providers, the FIU website will disclose registration receipt and acceptance status and support verification of Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification. The government stated that it will closely monitor the highly speculative virtual asset market trends and take immediate response measures if necessary.

Gu Yoon-cheol, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, urged, "The value of virtual assets cannot be guaranteed by anyone, and virtual asset trading is a highly speculative transaction rather than an investment, so please make careful judgments under your own responsibility." He added, "Since illegal activities such as multi-level marketing, unauthorized fundraising, and fraud disguised as virtual asset investment are also occurring, special caution is required."

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