South Korean Lawmaker Faces Investigation over Suspicious Crypto Transfers

South Korean prosecutors made an effort to probe a main opposition party lawmaker, Rep. Kim Nam-kuk of the Democratic Party, over some crypto transactions he allegedly made last year. However, they faced a stumbling block when the Seoul Southern District Court rejected their request for a warrant to examine the lawmaker’s financial records, Yonhap News Agency reports.

Court Denies Request for Search Warrant

According to the South Korean news agency’s sources, the court dismissed the request on the ground that the lawmaker’s crypto holdings did not require criminal investigation. However, prosecutors said they will consider making another effort to secure a search warrant, according to the sources.

The prosecutors’ probe is based on information received from the South Korea Financial Services Commission’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Kim reportedly had about 800,000 WEMIX coins in his crypto wallet between January and February 2022. The coins were worth about six billion won ($4.5 million) at the time.

On March 25, 2022, South Korea implemented the travel rule of the Financial Action Task Force, a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. The rule requires digital exchanges to store and report personal data on transactions that exceed a certain threshold.

In implementing the rule, South Korea required exchanges in the country to disclose the identity of entities and transactions worth over one million won. However, Kim allegedly withdrew all his coins before the rule came into force.

Kim Denies Breaking the Law

Furthermore, Yonhap reports that South Korea law requires top government officials to disclose their regular assets to the public. However, the country has no provision in this regard for digital assets. Kim also said he did not take out his tokens or contravene any law, according to CoinDesk.

In July 2021, Kim in collaboration with another lawmaker spearheaded a call for amendment to South Korea’s Income Tax Act, including the postponement of taxation on crypto assets, among other proposals. The take-off date for 20% tax on crypto earnings was later moved to 2025.

Meanwhile, in December last year, a court in Seoul dismissed an injunction filed by game developer WeMade against four South Korea crypto exchanges, to stop them from delisting its WEMIX coins from their platforms. In November, the exchanges under the aegis of the Digital Asset eXchange Association (DAXA) had announced plans to delist the coin, allegedly that the firm provided inaccurate figures about the number of its coins in circulation.

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