Customs Services to be strengthened for a crackdown on crimes of flying property out of the country

Investigation Bureau II to be newly established in Seoul Customs to be responsible for financial investigation

Sept 11, 2018

Ministry of the Interior and Safety

The Republic of Korea

The government plans to strengthen a crackdown on crimes of moving national property to a foreign country in order to eradicate anti-social acts that undermine social justice and fairness, including crimes of trade finance making ill use of transactions in trade and the elite’s diverting property out of the country.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) and the Korea Customs Service (KCS) announced that a legislation to establish the Investigation Bureau II in Seoul Customs to take full charge of financial investigation to reinforce a crackdown on money fleeing the country passed the Cabinet meeting on September 11.

The Investigation Bureau was previously in charge of clamping down on both smuggling and illegal foreign exchange transactions, however, the Investigation Bureau I will take charge of a crackdown on smuggling, etc. while the Investigation Bureau II will assume full charge of curbing illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Foreign Exchange Inspection Division will be newly established within the Investigation Bureau II to monitor foreign exchange transactions carried out by exporting and importing companies and currency exchange service providers, and a total of 62 officers including those of the Korea Customs Service, with 19 officers redeployed will compose the Investigation Bureau II in order to reinforce an analysis on the big data related to foreign exchange transactions.

This organizational reform came out of the need to more effectively respond to increasing property-related and financial crimes, such as flying property to a foreign country by means of trade and money laundering, as restrictions on foreign exchange have been recently eased and tariff rates have been lowered due to the expansion of the FTAs. In the process of organizational reform to be made this time, the personnel management is particularly efficient in that 91 officers are to be relocated to the fields which need supplementary functional reinforcement without any increase in personnel by reviewing the respective affairs or duties of the Korea Customs Service and each Customs Services office in different districts.

According to the personnel redeployment plan, 19 officers will be redeployed to the Investigation Bureau II of Seoul Customs. And in main Customs Services offices, 63 officers will be redeployed to strengthen the monitoring of property flows between bonded areas at each port, while 9 officers will be redeployed to address the imbalance in company audit affairs between regions.

This organizational reform is expected to strengthen the function of preventing property from being stashed away in a foreign country and improve the soundness of foreign exchange transactions through more efficient crackdown on crimes involving trade, thus enhancing the field service for the public.