Responding to Financial and Securities Crimes... 48 Prosecutors
[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office has established a joint investigation team to specialize in financial and securities crimes. This comes 1 year and 4 months after former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae abolished such a unit in January 2020, and just one day after Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon took office.
According to the prosecution on the 18th, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office reorganized the existing Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Cooperation Team to newly launch the "Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team."
The Southern District Prosecutors' Office stated, "We will drastically strengthen our response capabilities against financial and securities crimes and commence full-scale investigations and strict punishment of capital market disruptors."
The joint investigation team is an organization established to respond to various financial and securities crimes, including unfair trading in the capital market such as market manipulation, and is composed of a total of 48 members including prosecutors.
The joint investigation team, which was installed at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office in 2013 for specialized securities crime investigations, had experts dispatched from the Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service, and the Korea Exchange working alongside prosecutors, earning the nickname "Yeouido Grim Reapers."
Former Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye accepted criticism last September that the response capability to securities crimes was insufficient and established the Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Cooperation Team at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. However, it was pointed out that the cooperation team prosecutors could only direct investigations and were limited in conducting direct investigations themselves.
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