Law firm Daeryuk Aju has set up a unit dedicated to handling insurance fraud cases. As insurance fraud grows in scale and schemes become more sophisticated, the firm said demand is rising for investigations and legal responses to protect insurers and good-faith policyholders.
Law firm Daeryuk Aju (representative attorney Lee Gyu-cheol) said on the 6th that it launched an "insurance fraud response center." The center will operate by handling, in a single streamlined process, fact-finding for suspected insurance fraud cases, loss adjustment analysis, criminal complaints and accusations, and responses to civil and criminal procedures.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the amount detected in insurance fraud last year was 1.1571 trillion won, a record high. The number of people caught also exceeded 100,000. Daeryuk Aju said insurance fraud is spreading beyond simple false claims into organized cases involving medical institutions, repair shops, and brokers, and that integrated responses are needed from the initial stage.
A feature of the response center is the joint placement of legal professionals and field experts. While insurers' special investigation units (SIU) are strong in fact-finding, they have limits in handling criminal procedures and complaints to the Financial Supervisory Service, and while law firms have legal response capabilities, they may lack on-the-ground understanding of loss adjustment and the structure of insurance fraud. The center aims to address these gaps.
Attorney Kim Dong-ju (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 26) will head the center. Kim, a former prosecutor who served as Pohang branch chief and Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office public security chief, will oversee evidence collection and criminal response strategy. Advisory counsel Ahn Ung-hwan, a former Director General at the Financial Supervisory Service, will handle responses to complaints filed by insurance fraud suspects and attempts to obstruct investigations, and advisory counsel Kim Jin-geun, a loss adjuster, will review loss adjustment issues such as inflated repair estimates and false diagnoses.
International investigations expert Diana Kim will support analysis of overseas insurance fraud cases and the establishment of cooperation systems with global insurers. Attorney Hong Gi-yeong, a former prosecutor (Bar Exam class 10), attorney Jeon Da-som, a former police officer (Bar Exam class 8), and attorney Seong Bo-jang (Bar Exam class 10) will handle evidence collection, criminal complaints and accusations, and civil and criminal legal actions.
Attorney Kim Dong-ju said, "We will strengthen the industry's overall response capacity through seminars and workshops with the Financial Supervisory Service, insurers, and the Loss Adjusters Association, and build precedent and case databases," adding, "To prepare for cross-border, organized, and sophisticated insurance fraud, we also plan to establish cooperation systems with global insurers."