Police Uncover 14.8 Billion Won in Fraudulent National Subsidy Claims... 541 Arrested

Special Crackdown Conducted, Number of Arrests Doubled
Pre-trial Preservation of 1.37 Billion Won in Total

The police conducted a nationwide special crackdown on fraudulent receipt of government subsidies, arresting 224 cases and 541 individuals, and uncovering fraudulent subsidy amounts totaling 14.88 billion KRW.

Yoon Hee-geun, Commissioner of the National Police Agency. [Photo by Yonhap News]

According to the National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters (Guksubon) on the 9th, the special crackdown conducted from June to September showed a 62% increase in the number of arrests, a 109% increase in the number of individuals arrested, and a 78% increase in the amount uncovered compared to the same period last year.

By subsidy sector, 60% (327 people) were in the social and welfare sector such as support funds for the disabled, 13% (71 people) in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector such as modernization of farming facilities, 6% (33 people) in the education and health sector such as private school support funds, and 12% (66 people) in other sectors such as industrial technology. By type of crime, the most common was falsifying subsidy applications, embezzlement, or fraud, accounting for 87% (471 people). The type involving applying for and receiving subsidies legitimately but using them for other purposes accounted for 13% (70 people).

Recovery of fraudulently received subsidies to the national treasury was also carried out. At the time of case referral, all subsidy payment agencies were notified to recover the funds, and pre-prosecution seizure and preservation requests for criminal proceeds were included as new key enforcement guidelines. As a result, a total of 1.37 billion KRW of fraudulent subsidy amounts was preserved before prosecution. In particular, 85 individuals who registered false workers to embezzle about 1.2 billion KRW in subsidies were arrested, and 100 million KRW was seized and preserved. Additionally, two people including the head of a company who embezzled 1.89 billion KRW in subsidies from the non-face-to-face service voucher project were arrested and sent to prosecution.

Yoon Hee-geun, Commissioner of the National Police Agency, said, “Subsidy corruption is a fraud against the people’s taxes,” adding, “We will not be satisfied with this interim result, and will make every effort to strictly punish subsidy corruption to prevent leakage of national finances and realize economic justice.”

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