Police Recover 500 Billion KRW in Crime Proceeds in First Half of Year... Fraud Most Common

Confiscation and Seizure of 73.5 Billion KRW Related to Real Estate Speculation
Significant Expansion of Crime Proceeds Tracking Team
"Investigation Paradigm Expanded to Victim Relief"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] It has been revealed that the police confiscated and preserved criminal proceeds worth 500 billion KRW in the first half of this year alone. The significant increase in confiscation and preservation is attributed to the substantial reinforcement of the police task force dedicated to tracking criminal proceeds.

The National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency (NIH) announced on the 13th that from January to June this year, a total of 351 cases involving criminal proceeds worth approximately 507.3 billion KRW were confiscated and preserved. Compared to the same period last year, when the preserved amount was only 22.8 billion KRW, this represents an increase of more than 20 times.

By crime type, fraud accounted for the largest portion at 433.4 billion KRW (85.4%). Violations of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Act related to real estate speculation using insider information, which was one of the major issues in the first half of this year, amounted to 50.8 billion KRW, followed by gambling-related crimes at 13.3 billion KRW.

In the case of fraud, the preserved amount increased 280 times compared to the same period last year (1.5 billion KRW). Notably, preservation related to proceeds from fraudulent investment schemes resembling unauthorized deposit-taking reached 405.7 billion KRW. This type of fraud includes cryptocurrency-related criminal proceeds of 248.7 billion KRW and other unauthorized deposit-taking fraud proceeds such as bad checks amounting to 156 billion KRW. Confiscation and preservation related to real estate speculation cases also continued, with 50.8 billion KRW related to insider information-based speculation and 22.7 billion KRW related to planned real estate investment fraud, totaling approximately 73.5 billion KRW preserved so far.

Source: National Police Agency.

Regarding the types of assets preserved, bank deposits and bonds accounted for the largest amount at 263.9 billion KRW, while real estate such as buildings and land was preserved at a market value totaling approximately 196 billion KRW. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin were also preserved, amounting to about 800 million KRW.

The police attribute the significant impact on the preservation of criminal proceeds to the substantial expansion of the crime proceeds tracking investigation teams at city and provincial police agencies, with an increase of 71 personnel this year. Additionally, the implementation of the "Mandatory Crime Proceeds Tracking Cases" system, which imposes an obligation to track proceeds for crimes such as fraud exceeding 500 million KRW and voice phishing cases transferred from police stations to city/provincial headquarters, is also considered a contributing factor.

A NIH official stated, "The paradigm of investigations is expanding from punishing suspects to recovering criminal proceeds and compensating victims," adding, "Going forward, we plan to focus on blocking criminal proceeds to suppress the intent to reoffend and to maximize the restoration of crime victims."

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