1 year ago
72 South Korea managed to confiscate over $184 million worth of crypto funds in 2021 and 2022 from ‘tax dodgers’, based on local media reports. The authorities seized a total of $184.3 million worth of crypto from people accused of tax evasion, based on the local news outlet Yonhap News.
The most amount confiscated from one person was $8.87 million from a person who mainly owned Bitcoin and XRP. Between 2021 and 2022, the South Korean authorities were on the lookout for people who evaded paying taxes.
In the process, they nabbed over $184 million based on the reports published by a local news agency. These seizures come after months-long investigations by local authorities, which got this data from local exchanges.
The data, compiled by South Korean legislator Kim Sang-hoon, indicates that authorities seized $8.87 from one crypto investor who was trying to evade taxes. That is the most amount South Korea has seized from an individual in the past two years. The offender allegedly owned Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin (BTC), among other cryptos.
The tax watchdogs in the nation began recovering unpaid taxes in 2021 by impounding crypto assets. After collecting data from local crypto exchanges, the regulators seize tax delinquents’ crypto funds and in case the bill remains unpaid, these funds are sold at a market price.
In 2021, the Financial Times reported that South Korea seized $47 million in crypto from 12,000 “tax dodgers”. At that time, the Gyeonggi provincial government authorities said it was the biggest “cryptocurrency seizure for back taxes in Korean history.”
South Korea Continues Clamping Down ON Crypto Crime After LUNA Crash
Notably, the new data on crypto seizures in South Korea come barely two months after the government delayed taxation on cryptos by an extra two years to 2025. The decision represented a part of the nation’s tax reform plan under the recently elected crypto-bullish president Yoon Suk-Yeol.
Yet, the East Asian nation has enhanced its crackdown on crypto-related crime in the last several months, mainly after the crash of TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA. In July 2022, South Korean prosecutors raided multiple local crypto exchanges including Upbit as a part of the bigger investigation into the LUNA implosion.
Moreover, local authorities arrested three people last month after a $3.4 billion probe into illicit crypto transactions. Based on the statement by the prosecutor’s office, the people were suspected of owning and managing unregistered paper firms and crypto trading businesses.
