FIU imposes a fine of 2.7 billion won on Korbit…"Violation of customer verification obligations, etc."

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission imposed a fine of about 2.7 billion won on domestic virtual asset exchange Korbit on allegations of violating customer verification obligations and other duties.

On the 31st, the FIU held a sanctions review committee meeting regarding Korbit's comprehensive inspection and announced this decision. Specifically, the FIU issued an 'institutional warning' to Korbit and imposed a fine of 2.73 billion won. It also decided personnel sanctions for executives and employees, such as a warning to the CEO and a reprimand for the reporting officer.

Earlier, in October last year, the FIU conducted an on-site anti-money laundering inspection of Korbit. Through the inspection, the FIU confirmed that Korbit violated customer verification obligations and transaction restriction obligations under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information (the "Specific Financial Information Act") in about 22,000 cases. According to the FIU, Korbit supported a total of 19 virtual asset transfer transactions with three overseas unregistered virtual asset service providers, thereby violating the obligation to prohibit transactions with unregistered virtual asset service providers.

The FIU said it determined the level of sanction by comprehensively reviewing the degree, nature, motive, and consequences of Korbit's legal violations. The FIU plans to give Korbit prior notice of the fine and grant an opportunity to submit opinions for at least 10 days.

The final amount of the fine will be decided taking into account Korbit's submitted opinions. An FIU official said, "We plan to proceed with the remaining on-site inspection follow-up measures sequentially," and added, "We will strictly sanction serious violations of the Specific Financial Information Act."