- At the introductory event, the body promised to examine crypto practices including trading and price manipulation cases.
- The Office of the Southern District Prosecutors revealed that as crypto attackers became more experienced, intelligent, and globalized, it would make an effective crime response system.
- In the past few months, the operations of the unit became the subject of front-page news, when it started investigating a suspected scam coin named Queenbee.
The prosecution service of South Korea has recently introduced a particular crypto crime investigation unit to contend with crypto scams as well as coin fraud. The unit is called the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’s Office-run Joint Investigation Unit for Virtual Asset Crimes.
The investigation unit has been in force since 2023, but initially, it was focused on working as a temporary task force. It was created to contend what officials believed would be a short-lived hype in high-profile crypto-associated scam cases.
At the same time, the Joint Investigation Unit has been flooded with work since it was introduced. And with crypto adoption and crypto-associated crime increasing in South Korea, in January the prosecution service decided to continue with the unit and formalize the body.
The framework of the body
As reported by Aju News and MBC News, the office of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors mainly publicized to the level of the official joint investigation department. As per the name, the body includes public prosecutors. But it also consists of 11 financial regulators staffers from the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.
In the beginning, the unit will have 34 full-time officials overall. The majority of the employees have so far considerable experience handling crypto-associated fraud cases. At the introductory event, the body promised to examine crypto practices including trading and price manipulation cases.
Since its beginning, the body has charged 74 people and arrested 25 persons. In the past few months, the operations of the unit became the subject of front-page news, when it started investigating a suspected scam coin named Queenbee.
An effective crime response system
The probe ultimately led the unit to charge a high-profile shaman named Jeon Seong-bae. The unit arrested the person suspecting handling illicit political funds from politicians as well as candidates at the time of the 2018 local elections of the nation.
The unit will be headed by Chief Prosecutor Park Geon-wook. His team also includes two deputy chief prosecutors. The Office of the Southern District Prosecutors revealed that as crypto attackers became more experienced, intelligent, and globalized, it would make an effective crime response system.
This month, 6 people from South Korea were sent to custody and victimized over one thousand investors, by aiming them through various social media platforms such as YouTube. The agencies have done a lot of searches and raids and also has recovered many assets.
