South Korea launches investigation into banks over suspicious crypto transactions

The amount of transfers was about $6,5 billion

15.08.2022 - 15:00

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What’s new? South Korean authorities have detected several suspicious deposits into the accounts of local banks, including Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank, from a large number of companies. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) detected more than $1 billion in transfers. According to the report, most of it was transferred from an undisclosed cryptocurrency exchange. The regulator had previously recorded similar transactions, so the total amount of transfers has now reached $6,5 billion, according to local news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily.

Information on the Korea JoongAng Daily website

What did the investigation find out? After being deposited into bank accounts, funds were transferred abroad, including to Japan, the United States, and China. Among the transactions that aroused the FSS' interest were transfers made by newly emerging companies. Transactions of more than $50 million made by small businesses also raised suspicions. This led the agency to believe that some of them could be fictitious companies using crypto accounts to engage in illegal currency transactions.

The agency also specified that the transferred money was used to import various goods, such as semiconductors, jewelry and cosmetics, and a total of 65 companies were involved in the transactions.

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