[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Police Agency, after conducting a three-phase joint crackdown on economic crimes with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) over four months, has apprehended approximately 1,000 major economic offenders worldwide.
The National Police Agency announced on the 4th that from July to October, during a joint economic crime crackdown involving Interpol from over 30 countries including the United States, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom, they arrested 975 individuals, froze 2,751 bank accounts, and seized criminal proceeds amounting to 175.5 billion KRW. The agency added that through this operation, about 50 economic offenders who had fled abroad were repatriated to Korea, and criminal proceeds worth approximately 150 billion KRW were frozen.
In this crackdown, the police successfully apprehended a Polish and a German national in Italy and Greece, respectively, who were accused of embezzling a staggering 40.7 billion KRW from over 2,100 victims through multi-level financial fraud in Korea between 2016 and 2020. This was achieved through cooperation with Interpol offices in Italy and Greece and the Financial Crime and Corruption Prevention Center. The National Police Agency stated that extradition procedures for the suspects are currently underway.
Nigerian nationals accused of deceiving Korean victims by pretending to be U.S. military personnel deployed to Yemen last year and embezzling about 250 million KRW were also apprehended locally. The police explained that romance scam cases typically face difficulties in identifying and arresting suspects, making the local arrests through Interpol cooperation particularly significant.
Additionally, the police highlighted notable cases such as the dismantling of a telephone financial fraud organization through Austria-India Interpol cooperation, and the freezing and restitution of 1.7 billion KRW in damages from an email trade fraud case that occurred in Ireland. Kang Gitaek, head of the Interpol International Cooperation Division at the National Police Agency, stated, "This operation, supported financially by the National Police Agency and conducted globally, yielded very meaningful results. We will continue to regularly conduct joint Interpol crackdowns to focus all efforts on apprehending and repatriating economic offenders who have fled abroad."
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