Prosecutor’s Office Joins War against Real Estate Speculation

The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Criminal Department (chief prosecutor: Lee Dong-ki) held a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, the National Tax Service, and the National Police Agency and decided to form a “joint investigation headquarters against real estate speculators” by the end of the year and to launch a focused crackdown.

“Real estate speculation report centers” will be established in the central prosecutor’s office.

It is the first time in 15 years since 1990 during the early days of the Roh Tae-woo government that a joint investigation headquarters has been formed to crack down on real estate speculation. Fifteen years ago, the prosecutor’s office identified 8,944 real estate speculators, arrested 776 of them, booked 7,097 without detention, and referred 1,071 to the National Tax Service during the nine-month investigation.

The prosecutor’s office plans to convene a meeting of prosecutors from 55 district offices and agencies that specialize in real estate speculation investigation on July 11 to discuss crackdown measures and procedures.

Major targets of the investigation are planning realtors and unregistered realtors that look for “short sales profits” at the administration-complex city site and locations for new cities.

The prosecutor’s office will focus its crackdown on hundreds of realtors who it believes are fueling real estate speculation by launching exaggerated advertisements through a 50,000 caller-strong telemarketing group.

The prosecutor’s office plans to arrest and investigate perpetrators and hand over tax evasion information for redemption.

jin0619@donga.com