The Financial Supervisory Service will ask the Financial Services Commission in the second half of this year to allocate a supplementary budget to secure the expense for organizing a special judicial police (special investigators) unit for livelihood-related financial crimes. The Financial Supervisory Service recently wrapped up consultations with the Ministry of Justice on amending the law to create the unit and appears to be moving in earnest to prepare for its launch while pushing to secure the related budget.
According to the financial authorities on the 6th, the Financial Supervisory Service plans to request in Aug.–Sep. that the Financial Services Commission arrange a supplementary budget to launch the special investigators for livelihood-related financial crimes. The Financial Supervisory Service will soon begin calculating the detailed expense needed to form the unit. If the Financial Services Commission obtains approval from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the procedure to receive additional funds will proceed. The special investigators system grants limited investigative authority to administrative officials to investigate crimes in specific expert fields.
The Financial Supervisory Service recently completed consultations with the Ministry of Justice on amending the Act on the Performance of Duties by Judicial Police Officials (the Act on Persons Who Perform the Duties of Judicial Police Officials and the Scope of Their Duties). It set the scope of work for the livelihood-related financial crimes special investigators as illegal private financing and decided to grant the authority to initiate investigations, on the condition that investigative authority over illegal debt collection will not be granted.
If the related bill passes this year, the Financial Supervisory Service plans to launch the livelihood-related financial crimes special investigators next year after preparations. The planned supplementary budget request is reportedly being pursued to preemptively secure the funds needed for the unit's swift launch.
The Financial Supervisory Service is accelerating preparations to introduce the special investigators. Until recently, the Financial Supervisory Service conducted training related to investigating illegal private financing for 50 volunteer employees, two hours a day for four to five days. A prosecutorial advisor (prosecutor) seconded to the Financial Supervisory Service and a police officer provided instruction on matters such as how to apply for warrants, procedures for opening investigations, and methods for seizing evidence.
An official at the Financial Supervisory Service said, "We plan to estimate the necessary expense for launching the livelihood-related financial crimes special investigators and then push for a supplementary budget."