Police Strengthen Review of FIU Notification Materials... Specialized Personnel at Metropolitan and Provincial Police Agencies to Examine First

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The police have decided to have specialized personnel at the city and provincial police agencies review the data notified by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). This move is interpreted as a response to criticisms that the initial investigation into the preferential treatment allegations related to the Daejang-dong development project in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, was insufficient.

A police official stated on the 21st, "We plan to establish a specialized analysis system where FIU data will first be reviewed by experts at the city and provincial police agencies before being assigned to frontline stations." It is known that the police are considering a method where specialized personnel, such as those in the crime proceeds tracking investigation teams at the city and provincial police agencies, analyze FIU data first and then forward it to the frontline.

Until now, the police have been distributing documents received from the FIU and others directly to frontline units, where financial analysis and investigations were conducted simultaneously to identify suspicious points. However, despite the FIU detecting suspicious fund flows related to Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management (Hwacheon Daeyu) in April and forwarding the information to the police, there have been ongoing criticisms that proper investigations were not conducted for five months regarding the Daejang-dong allegations.

This issue was also intensively raised during the National Assembly audit of the National Police Agency and Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. In fact, out of 97,590 cases provided by the FIU to the police over the past five years, only 26,454 cases (27%) had been completed as of the end of August this year. When faced with criticism that investigations were sluggish during the National Police Agency audit, Commissioner Kim Chang-ryong admitted, "The initial judgment was wrong."