[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] It will become possible to recover criminal proceeds from real estate investments made under borrowed names.
On the afternoon of the 8th, the National Assembly's Judiciary Committee passed the "Act on the Regulation and Punishment of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds" amendment in a plenary session. The amendment stipulates that criminal proceeds can be recovered for all crimes punishable by imprisonment of three years or more.
This was pushed by the ruling party to address the loophole in the current law that makes it difficult to recover speculative profits made by employees, such as in the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) scandal.
However, the provision allowing application to ongoing investigations and trials was excluded due to concerns over unconstitutionality. Therefore, it will be difficult to apply it to the LH scandal.
Additionally, the Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the Commercial Building Lease Protection Act that grants tenants of commercial properties who closed their businesses due to the impact of COVID-19 the right to terminate their contracts. The amendment allows tenants to terminate lease contracts if they report business closure due to restrictions such as assembly bans lasting three months or more.
An amendment to the Court Organization Act, which postpones the gradual increase of the qualification requirement for judge appointments to "10 years of legal experience" from 2026 to 2029, was also passed, extending the deadline by three years.
Amendments to the Prosecutor Disciplinary Act and the Judge Disciplinary Act, which extend the statute of limitations for disciplinary actions related to sexual misconduct by prosecutors and judges from the current three years to ten years, also passed the Judiciary Committee.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
