Account Tracing by Investigation Agencies Increased by 60 Percent Last Year

The number of cases where investigation agencies requested financial transaction information to trace accounts exceeded the number of the cases requested by tax offices.

According to administration inspection documents filed by the Finance and Economy Ministry to Rep. Uhm Ho-sung (Grand National Party) of the Financial and Economic Committee at the National Assembly on October 10, the cases in which financial organizations offered financial transaction information by the request of investigation agencies numbered 87,655, a 60.2 percent increase from last year’s 54,703.

Contrarily, the cases where financial transaction information was offered to taxation authorities including the National Tax Office decreased from last year’s 69,818 to this year’s 67,057, a 3.9 percent decrease and a smaller number than what investigation agencies had been offered.

In the past, taxation authorities have had more cases in which they requested information from tax inspections related to tax evasion than investigation agencies. However, this trend was reversed due to the sudden increase in investigation agency account tracing activities last year.

This year also shows a similar trend, with investigation agency cases numbering 25,469 and tax office cases numbering 22,601.

In 2001 and 2002, requests by tax offices for financial transaction information numbered 77,135 and 69,818 cases respectively, which are larger than investigation agencies’ 29,546 and 54,703 cases, respectively.

Also, the number of financial transaction information cases offered to the Financial Supervisory Service numbered 9,047 last year, an 8.9 percent increase from 8,307 cases the year before. The Government Official Ethics Committee requested 15,151 cases, a 48 percent decrease from last year’s 29,418.

Ji-Wan Cha cha@donga.com