According to a report from a local outlet known as Newsis, South Korean customs authorities made 16 arrests on Tuesday related to illegal transactions involving foreign currency.
According to the report, two of the 16 people are going to be charged with criminal offences, seven were issued monetary penalties for their negligent actions, and the investigation is still ongoing for the remaining seven individuals.
The arrests were made as a direct result of an investigation that was conducted by the Korea Customs Service since February. The investigation uncovered more than 2.7 trillion won ($2 billion) in illegal foreign exchange transactions that were related to virtual assets.
Inspectors of customs found that a number of the illegal transactions involving foreign exchange were related to offshore crypto exchanges. Some of the individuals involved had created companies such as illegal remittance agencies and then hid trade proceeds from overseas buyers using domestic banks.
According to the director of the Seoul Customs Investigation Bureau, there is a high possibility that these foreign exchange transactions may have violated the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. This information was provided to Newsis by Lee Min-geun.
This is the most recent development in South Korea’s ongoing effort to crack down on illegal crypto activity. At the beginning of this month, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, which is the country’s watchdog for anti-money laundering, identified 16 crypto firms as operating without registration.
It was not possible to obtain a comment from the Korea Customs Service at this time.
