"Increased use of coins to move criminal funds… Seized assets surge 1500%"

A report said that cases of criminal organizations using virtual assets (cryptocurrency) as a means to conceal and launder criminal proceeds are rapidly increasing.

According to materials submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Wi Seong-gon of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee on the 25th, virtual assets seized and forfeited by the police through September this year amounted to 134.4 billion won. This is a 1519% increase compared to 2023 (8.3 billion won). Among the total amount of recovered criminal proceeds of 529.6 billion won this year, the share of virtual assets also exceeded 25%, expanding significantly.

In particular, it was found that criminal organizations laundered funds by converting money collected in mule bank accounts into virtual assets and then transferring it to overseas organizations using electronic wallets. Organizations that operated from overseas fraud hubs such as Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh were also found to have used the same method. Recently, methods using unverified private exchanges or virtual asset ATMs have emerged, increasing the difficulty of tracing.

Meanwhile, the police are operating a response team of 148 personnel nationwide in provincial police agencies dedicated to seizure and forfeiture before prosecution and are tracking the flow of funds. However, since seized virtual assets cannot be sold until a court ruling is finalized, delays in recovering losses due to price fluctuations have been pointed out as a structural problem. It is also reported that cases of recovery procedures being halted due to non-cooperation by overseas exchanges continue.