Police Commissioner General: "Strengthening Crackdown on Market Disruptions Such as Fraudulent Subscription and Planned Real Estate Speculation"

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance (second from left), is delivering a statement titled 'A Message to the People' during a joint briefing of government ministries related to real estate at the Government Seoul Office briefing room on the 28th. The briefing was also attended by Noh Hyung-wook, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Eun Sung-soo, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Kim Chang-ryong, Commissioner of the National Police Agency. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The police investigating real estate speculation allegations triggered by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) have decided to strengthen crackdowns on the so-called 'four major market disruption acts' in the second half of the year, including fraudulent subscription and planned real estate speculation.

On the morning of the 28th, Police Commissioner Kim Chang-ryong stated at a joint briefing with related real estate ministries, "Please be especially cautious not to fall into the temptation of speculative organizations and face criminal punishment or lose your valuable property."

The police plan to focus on cracking down on 'apartment fraudulent subscriptions' by subscription brokers targeting the housing supply boom, including ▲subscription account trading ▲false address registration ▲manipulation of subscription qualifications. Recently, the police explained that there have been frequent cases where subscription accounts with high points are purchased cheaply and used for popular area subscriptions, while accounts with low points repeatedly register false addresses until winning the right to purchase.

Commissioner Kim said, "Public housing sales to be promoted in the second half of this year will be supplied in popular metropolitan areas and at prices lower than market value, raising concerns about cases of manipulating subscription qualifications and points," adding, "We will promote strong joint crackdowns with related agencies to prevent such fraudulent subscription acts from taking root any further." To this end, the police will organize a 'special investigation team' in four metropolitan city and provincial police agencies and 29 police stations in the metropolitan area.

They also plan to strengthen crackdowns on 'planned real estate speculation,' where real estate acquired cheaply through corporations is sold by splitting shares to gain huge resale profits. Commissioner Kim said, "We will continuously monitor real estate transactions under corporate names in major planned development areas and promptly investigate and probe suspicious transactions," adding, "Professional speculative forces will be prosecuted as 'criminal organizations,' severely punished, and speculative profits will be actively confiscated and recovered."

Since March 10 of this year, the government joint special investigation headquarters, centered on the National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters, has investigated over 3,800 people and referred about 1,300 of them (including 40 arrests) to the prosecution. The confiscated real estate and other assets for crime proceeds recovery amount to approximately 79.3 billion KRW.