Former President Jeon Du-hwan's 'Final Additional Collection' of 5.5 Billion KRW Confirmed for National Treasury Recovery

3 Parcels of Forest Land in Osan, Gyeonggi... 86.7 Billion KRW in Additional Fines Remain
Retroactive Legislation Needed for Collection... Prosecution Considering Further Penalties

The 5.5 billion won from the public auction of forest land, considered the only asset of former President Jeon Du-hwan subject to confiscation, will be recovered into the national treasury.

According to the legal community on the 4th, Kyobo Asset Trust's lawsuit against Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) to cancel the distribution of the auction proceeds was finalized on the 30th of last month with the plaintiff losing. After losing in the first trial and again in the second trial on the 8th of last month, Kyobo Asset Trust did not appeal, confirming the ruling.

Former President Jeon was sentenced to life imprisonment and a confiscation amount of 220.5 billion won by the Supreme Court in 1997 on charges including rebellion and bribery. In 2013, the prosecution seized five parcels of forest land in Osan City to enforce the confiscation ruling.

The forest land was put up for public auction in 2017, and 7.56 billion won was allocated toward the confiscation amount. However, Kyobo Asset Trust filed a lawsuit to cancel the seizure, and after going to the Supreme Court, about 2.052 billion won from two parcels of land was attributed to the national treasury.

However, regarding the 5.5 billion won from the remaining three parcels, Kyobo Asset Trust filed a lawsuit to cancel the distribution of the auction proceeds, preventing recovery. Earlier, a creditor group consisting of nine savings banks, including Burim Savings Bank, filed a lawsuit in 2019 to cancel the distribution of auction proceeds by KAMCO on three parcels of forest land in Osan City, Gyeonggi Province, claiming that the land could not be subject to confiscation. The lawsuit was filed with Kyobo Asset Trust representing the plaintiffs. Kyobo Asset Trust is a trust company managing the land ownership of BL Asset Co., Ltd., which the creditor group lent money to using the land as collateral, thus becoming the 'nominal plaintiff' in the lawsuit.

The creditor group argued in the lawsuit that "since appropriate compensation was paid to acquire the Osan land, it cannot be subject to confiscation," but both the first and second trials rejected this and ruled that the prosecution's seizure and auction were legitimate.

With this recovery, the prosecution can receive 5.5 billion won out of the 128.22 billion won in confiscation money still unpaid by former President Jeon. After the recovery, about 86.7 billion won remains to be confiscated. Although the unpaid confiscation amount is still significant, unless there are special variables such as legislation, it seems difficult to confiscate more from former President Jeon beyond this 5.5 billion won.

The Crime Proceeds Recovery Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-chan) has been reviewing for nine months since March last year the possibility of additional confiscation after receiving a complaint from the Committee for the Protection of the Common People (Seominwi) to investigate the former president's family's 'slush fund suspicions,' but it is known that no breakthrough has yet been found.