Private Detective Agencies Go Global

A parent of a student studying abroad solicited the S Agency, a private detective agency, this March.

The parent asked, “It has only been a couple days since I sent our child money, but he is asking for more. I want to know if he is being bullied by other kids for money.”

The S Agency made a request to a partner detective agency in Los Angeles. The agency in Los Angeles soon pursued the whereabouts of the student, Lee (age 16), who is in the eleventh grade.

Lee had pretty much given up on school. He went to school, but he left right away with several friends. He would go to a restroom in a park, do cocaine, buy beer, and head to his friend’s house.

During weekends, he and four other friends would take an eight-hour drive to casinos in Las Vegas. Lee lost $3,000 in one night.

Evidence, including a photograph of Lee doing cocaine and a detailed report of Lee’s behavior soon arrived. The five-day investigation cost 4 million won. The parent immediately flew to the U.S. to retrieve the child.

In Korea tracking someone’s whereabouts would breach the Enforcement Decree of the Use and Protection of Credit Information Act. The title “private eye” is not allowed. “Private investigators” can operate only when solicited by lawyers or insurance companies.

This is why private detective agencies have been limited to keeping an eye on spouses, “problem solving,” and “errands.”

Recently, private detective agencies have been eyeing the market outside of Korea to overcome such boundaries. As more Koreans live abroad, there is more demand for private investigation. It is also legal to carry out private investigations in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Some 50 private investigation agencies now handle cases abroad.

Many cases involve students studying abroad and employees stationed abroad-

As the number of students leaving Korea to study abroad at an early age escalates, private investigation agencies receive more solicitations. In April, Mr. Han (age 46) asked a company to investigate his wife and son, who are living in Canada. He was worried because his wife seldom called and his son’s voice over the phone sounded somewhat strange.

Private detectives in Montreal reported that his wife often met with other men and his son, a high school student, went to bars practically every day. The Hans divorced and the son returned to Korea.

Companies also request checkups on their employees stationed abroad. D Company uncovered in early 2004 that an employee of a Korean pharmaceutical company appropriated company products to support his gambling habit. D Company reported the matter to its client.

Private detectives even prevent trade scams-

Clients also ask private detectives to investigate foreign companies that they do business with to prevent being tricked.

A trading company located in Seoul received an offer it could not turn down from an American LCD manufacturing company late last year. The price was low and the samples were of top quality. The offer was so good that the president of the company was compelled to solicit a private investigating agency to make a background check on the manufacturing company.

The agency told their partner investigator in Miami the address of the manufacturing company. Much to the investigator’s surprise, an abandoned house stood where the factory should have been.

The investigator tracked down the real address of the company after checking the identity of the manufacturing company president at the Department of Licensing. Only three employees were at work in a small office in a shabby business complex. What was supposed to be a company operating five factories turned out to be a small used LCD handler. Had the trading company signed the contract, it would have lost $100 million.

Most inquiries involve fugitives hiding abroad-

About 60 percent of all inquiries involve fugitives at large abroad.

In late 2005, a private investigation agency was asked to locate Lee (age: 38), who appropriated 500 million won from a clothing trading company and fled to China. The agency found out, after interviewing Lee’s closest friends, that he was living in Shenyang.

The agency hired a Korean-Chinese private investigator Ryu (age 32) and handed him Lee’s profile. Investigator Ryu visited Korean supermarkets and restaurants in neighborhoods inhabited by many Koreans, showed people a picture of Lee, and asked, “I am a friend of this person. I have to tell him that his mother in Korea has fallen ill.”

After about a month of this, a person he met at the sauna said, “He comes here on weekends every now and then.”

The client told the prosecutor in charge and the prosecutor subsequently passed on extradition documents to the Chinese embassy in Korea via the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. At the embassy’s request, the Chinese police captured Lee.

After being extradited, Employee Lee was sentenced to 18 months behind bars, and the client got back the $300 million that was left unspent.

One private investigation agency president said, “Of the 3,449 criminals who fled abroad from 2001 to 2006, only 29 (0.84 percent) of them have been arrested. With the rise in the number of people who commit big crimes and flee abroad, more and more inquiries have been coming in.”

snow@donga.com