71 Manufacturers and Cleaning Company Workers Arrested, 2 Detained
Officials from companies that installed defective diesel particulate filter (DPF) devices on old diesel vehicles and fraudulently received over 1.3 billion won in government subsidies were collectively caught by the police.
On the 11th, the Namdong Police Station in Incheon announced that it had arrested two people, including A (53), the head of a DPF manufacturer, on charges of fraud and violation of the Subsidy Management Act, and had sent 69 others, including B (41), a cleaning company official, to the prosecution without detention.
A and others are accused of installing uncertified Chinese-made filters with reduced emission reduction function or filters with holes on old diesel vehicles from January 2018 to November last year, thereby embezzling 1.26 billion won in subsidies from the government and local governments.
Belonging to seven companies, they committed the crime by exploiting the fact that the Korea Automobile Environment Association, a subsidy business operator under the Ministry of Environment, allocates government and local government subsidies to companies based on the cleaning performance of emission reduction devices and user satisfaction evaluations.
To increase cleaning performance in a short period, A and others carried out cleaning work on the roadside instead of at regular inspection stations, or installed uncertified Chinese-made filters or filters with holes for customers who raised complaints about power loss and other issues. These fake filters have reduced emission reduction effects, harming air quality, while increasing vehicle power output.
They also shared messages in an internal SNS group chat to avoid crackdowns, saying, "Please be careful not to mention regeneration or N filters (uncertified Chinese-made filters) to vehicle owners."
After receiving intelligence on their crimes, the police conducted nine raids on the DPF manufacturer and its partners, confirming the supply of defective filters, and froze 1.26 billion won in criminal proceeds from A and others through seizure and confiscation before prosecution.
A police official said, "Damaging existing DPF filters or replacing them with uncertified filters due to power loss or other reasons is subject to criminal punishment and subsidy recovery," adding, "We will continue to strengthen interdepartmental cooperation and strictly crack down to prevent fraudulent receipt of national subsidies."
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