Hidden Properties of Insolvent Business Owners Will Forfeit by 1st Quarter of Next Year

The government decided to set an additional special inspection on the owners and executive members of the insolvent businesses who hid their properties in foreign countries or transferred properties to their children before filing bankruptcy.

The Public Fund Investigation Council (Chairperson Kim Jin-Pyo, Vice Minister of Finance and Economy), established the operation plans of the Council at the 1st meeting yesterday, including the sharing the information among the related departments and the support of human resources to manage efficiently the public funds and to track and forfeit of the hidden properties.

Vice Minister Kim stated that "the targets of this investigation are those who showed distinctive moral hazard such as transference of the properties to other persons right before filing bankruptcy, who have enjoyed luxurious overseas tours, who have tremendous hidden properties, or who hid their properties in foreign countries. If any violation of law is detected, they will be punished by the civil affairs laws and the criminal laws."

Mr. Kim also explained, "[the Council] will regularly review the amount of the confiscated properties, and if necessary, will generate a whole sale of the properties of the insolvent corporations to increase the re-collection of the public funds. The Council will hold a regular meeting every month and special meetings whenever they are necessary to make reports of the facts revealed by the Council and Special Investigation Headquarters to the Public Funds Management Committee." Each department decided to take a specific part of the activities to clarify the responsibility of insolvency. National Tax Service and Korea Customs Service will investigate for tax evasion and the hidden properties in foreign countries to forfeit them and the Bank of Korea will provide the foreign exchange information including the smuggling of foreign currencies. The Ministry of Justice will question the criminal responsibilities of the suspects of insolvent businesses through the Special Investigation Headquarters and Financial Supervisory Service will take participate in the reprimanding and disciplining of the employees and executive members of the financial organizations.

hcs@donga.com