Uncollected Criminal Forfeiture Amounts to About 31 Trillion Won... Increased by 300 Billion Won in One Year

Over 31,500 Unpaid Cases Until May
Unpaid Penalties Related to Similar Deposit Schemes Surge... 5.7 Billion KRW This Year
Execution Rate 0.5%... Recovery Increasingly Difficult

Lee Mo (32), CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange ‘V Global,’ was arrested and indicted on charges of fraud amounting to 2 trillion won. In the first trial, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison along with an order to confiscate 106.4 billion won. Lee chose to appeal, and the second trial is currently underway. Naturally, the confiscation amount arising from the fraud charges remains unpaid. While his criminal charges are clear, it is uncertain whether the criminal proceeds can be confiscated.

According to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 28th, as of the 31st of last month, the ‘uncollected confiscation amount’ was recorded at 30.9214 trillion won. This represents an increase of 300 billion won over one year. Confiscation refers to receiving an amount in place of goods obtained as a result of criminal activity when those goods cannot be recovered or seized. The number of unpaid cases has also increased significantly. As of the same date, the number of unpaid cases was 31,552, an increase of 1,068 cases compared to last year. The confiscation amount has been increasing annually. The unpaid confiscation amount, which was 25.8454 trillion won in 2015, exceeded 30 trillion won in 2020. In 2020, the unpaid confiscation amount increased by about 3 trillion won compared to the previous year.

The majority of the unpaid confiscation amount is accounted for by large confiscation cases exceeding 5 billion won. Still outstanding are the confiscation amount of 19 trillion won related to former Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-jung’s charges of asset evasion abroad and about 90 billion won related to Jeon Du-hwan’s charges as a rebellion ringleader. However, compared to last year, this year has seen a trend of large confiscation cases arising from charges of unauthorized fundraising, fraud, and gambling. This is analyzed to be due to increased liquidity along with COVID-19, which sparked people’s interest in investment.

In fact, last year, unpaid confiscation amounts due to unauthorized fundraising did not rank within the top 100, but this year, about 5.7 billion won in confiscation amounts occurred. The unpaid amount related to fraud also increased from about 199 billion won last year to about 226.1 billion won this year. Confiscation amounts related to gambling also increased by about 40 billion won, requiring confiscation of more than 168.6 billion won this year.

Concerns are rising that it will become increasingly difficult to recover unpaid confiscation amounts as criminal methods and methods of concealing criminal proceeds diversify. Last year, the amount recovered from confiscation was 122.1 billion won, with an enforcement rate of only 0.5%. Seung Jae-hyun, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice, said, "Confiscation of criminal proceeds through cryptocurrencies and others will become increasingly complex and difficult," adding, "We need to focus on active confiscation of criminal proceeds through the introduction of independent confiscation systems that allow recovery of criminal proceeds even without a guilty verdict."

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