Minister Park instructed the prosecution of stronger penalty demand and criminal forfeiture.
The accumulated cryptocurrency crime damage for the last two years is estimated to be around 2.7 trillion KRW. The government is planning to counter these crimes strictly, as the prices and trading frequency of cryptocurrency are increasing again recently.
Ministry of Justice announced on Jul 21, as a result of the investigation focus on the cryptocurrency crimes, they have exposed 165 cases, including 132 indicted with custody, and 228 indicted without custody from Jul. 2017 to Jun. 2019.
The damage of the crimes relating to fraud, pyramid, illegal funding, and cryptocurrency exchange platform related crimes during the relevant period amounted 2.7 trillion KRW.
Suwon District Court has exposed nine financial fraud groups and indicted 15 main members from January to April last year. They illegally gained a total profit of 13.48 billion KRW by deceiving investors as if they could make a huge-profit investment with coins of no economic value.
Meanwhile in Apr. 2018, Seoul Central District Court has indicted a pyramid group administrator who made an illegal profit of 43.08 billion KRW by deliberately deceiving as if the independently developed coins may be listed and commonly used. There was even a fake picture of the administrator taking a photo with the president of Korea used for the scam.
There also was a case where a Chinese investor illegally exchanged 13.19 billion KRW worth of CNY through cryptocurrency exchange platforms in both countries by using the fact that Bitcoin price in Korea is higher than that of China.
Ministry of Justice explained, “Recently, as virtual currency(cryptocurrency) transactions and values have sharply increased, there are concerns of crime related to cryptocurrency rising. We will gradually and strictly counter the relevant crimes.”
Park has instructed the prosecution on Jul 19 to strengthen measures against the cryptocurrency crimes. He ordered, “There must be the penalties corresponding to the relevant criminals of their responsibilities by demanding stronger penalties, and the criminal profit will be thoroughly forfeited to remove the crime inducing factors.”
Lim Yukyung(2019.07.21) 암호화폐 범죄 피해 2년간 2조7천억…법무부 “엄정대응
ZD net Korea, retrieved from http://www.zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20190721150840
