Police have begun procedures to recover the criminal revenue of scam suspects arrested in Cambodia and extradited to Korea.
The Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) applied for confiscation and preservation for collection on 1.4772 billion won in criminal revenue from 67 suspects. Before-indictment confiscation and preservation for collection is a measure in which an investigative agency, with court approval, freezes revenue obtained through a crime or property of equivalent value to prevent suspects from hiding or disposing of it before they are formally sent to trial.
A total of 73 criminal suspects were extradited from Cambodia by police. Of these, one kidnapping-robbery suspect that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Phishing Investigation Unit is currently investigating and one simple fraud suspect that the Changwon Jungbu Police Station in South Gyeongsang is investigating were excluded because their crimes are not eligible for before-indictment confiscation and preservation for collection. In addition, three fraud suspects in a case handled by the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Unit and one gambling suspect under investigation at the Seoul Seocho Police Station were also excluded from the before-indictment confiscation and preservation list because no criminal revenue obtained through the crimes was confirmed.
To trace criminal revenue, police deployed seven city and provincial dedicated criminal revenue investigation teams (29 officers). They requested and received a total of 193 sets of materials related to the criminals' assets from relevant agencies, including the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the National Tax Service, and executed warrants on financial companies to secure and analyze transaction statements for 562 accounts.
However, most extradited suspects received the criminal revenue in cash locally and used it for living expenses, and they hold little property in Korea, so the amount actually preserved before indictment for confiscation and collection was only 248.3 million won.
Accordingly, police applied to preserve the remaining 1.2289 billion won in criminal proceeds by designating it as future deposit claims (claims to amounts that will be deposited in suspects' accounts in the future). If money is deposited into the suspects' accounts going forward, authorities can immediately begin recovery procedures.
Park Sung-ju, head of the National Office of Investigation (NOI), said, "To ensure there can be absolutely no profit from fraud crimes such as voice phishing and romance scams, we will use every means to track and strip away assets obtained through criminal acts to the very end."