Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office Announces Results of Loan and Insurance Fraud Investigation... Emphasizes 'Direct Investigation'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] An incident that almost ended as a simple traffic accident was revealed to be an organized loan and insurance fraud through the prosecution's supplementary investigation.

The Human Rights Protection Division of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office disclosed on the 9th the investigative results that identified loan and insurance fraud crimes by supplementing the transferred case.

The prosecution arrested three people, including the ringleader of the work loan fraud group, and indicted five accomplices without detention.

They are accused of exploiting the relatively simple guarantee and loan screening procedures for policy funds aimed at financially vulnerable groups such as 'Haetsalron' by creating fake businesses and embezzling about 1.2 billion KRW through 102 loan transactions.

They are also accused of deliberately causing traffic accidents using used imported cars purchased with the proceeds from loan fraud, defrauding a total of 650 million KRW in insurance money over 47 incidents.

After receiving the case from the police, the prosecution conducted a thorough review and detected signs of insurance fraud.

As a result of the investigation, it was revealed that the traffic accident victim had been involved in accidents at the same location before and had received insurance payments more than 60 times over two years.

The prosecution, in consultation with the police, took a 'circumventive measure' to enable direct investigation and received the case again to proceed with the investigation.

This is because, according to the 'Regulations on the Scope of Crimes for Prosecutors' Investigation Initiation,' direct prosecution investigation is not possible for traffic accident transferred cases.

Therefore, the suspects were re-transferred on charges such as insurance fraud rather than violation of the Special Act on the Settlement of Traffic Accidents, and the prosecution focused on proving the charges through account tracing, call history, vehicle registration analysis, and search and seizure of the Credit Guarantee Foundation and the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency.

A Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office official stated, "Although the prosecutor requested the police to conduct supplementary investigations on the insurance fraud part, the police investigation could not proceed, so we conducted a direct investigation and uncovered the full extent of the crime," adding, "This case confirmed the necessity of direct investigation by prosecutors into related criminal charges in transferred cases."

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