Korean Police Ready to Accept Crypto for Traffic Fines

The virtual asset seizure pilot project was a successful experiment in Korea.

Korean Police Ready To Accept Crypto For Traffic Fines

South Koreaโ€™s Gunpo Police Station has broken ground by collecting arrears and negligence fines in situations where face-to-face collection activities are difficult due to COVID-19 via a virtual asset seizure pilot project.ย 

According to the pilot program, the Gunpo Police Station achieved about 88% of the target collection amount for non-payment of traffic fines in the first half of this year alone, after estimating that the current status of virtual currency holdings by exchanges was over 1 million won, because of the delinquents.

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Kwak Kyung-ho, head of the Gunpo Police Station, said that โ€œwe will do our best to collect delinquents with strong delinquency measures against malicious delinquents.”

Largest Amount of Fines Collected in the Past Three Years

According to the pilot program, โ€œThis is the largest amount of arrears fines collected in the past three years, exceeding the fines collected by the Gunpo Police Station last year (about 850 million won).โ€

As an example, the local police said that it found virtual currency worth 50 million won owed by delinquents. Using the pilot program, the police were able to seize 2.5 million won in non-payment of traffic arrears through delinquents’ salaries and deposits.

With the virtual asset seizure pilot project, the Gunpo Police Station achieved about 88% of the target collection amount for non-payment of traffic fines in the first half of this year alone.ย 

โ€œThis year, the Gunpo Police Station's target for non-payment of traffic fines was 1 billion won, and as of the end of June, about 880 million won was collected,โ€ according to the details for the pilot program.

On the Flipside

  • Recently, South Korea found 16 crypto exchanges violating the Specific Financial Information Act by the FSC. The government is handling the rise in crypto crimes.

Why You Should Care

The Korean crypto sector has been recording growth.

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Akriti Seth

Akriti is a Zurich-based reporter, focused on the political, regulatory, and legislative developments around crypto. She is a business journalist with over six years of experience working as a correspondent for organizations like Channel NewsAsia and Bloomberg TV India. In that time, Akriti has covered news in the finance, pharma, and state sectors.

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