South Korea found illegal transactions of nearly $600 million in encrypted currency

The South Korean government is investigating illegal foreign exchange transactions using encrypted currency, according to a statement.

The declaration was released by the KCS in January 31st. It said that 637 billion 500 million foreign currencies (about 600 million U.S. dollars) were illegally exchanged, including the unrecorded capital outflow of encrypted currencies.

The survey is part of the broader efforts made by the Korean authorities to investigate the activities related to encryption. Just a few days ago, the country's financial regulators officially banned anonymous encryption of money trading accounts, which came into force in January 30th.

Although KCS did not provide any name of entities that were accused of using illegal currencies to trade illegally, it outlined the commonly adopted methods based on surveys.

In a case that accounted for most of the alleged amount, KCS said that from March to December last year, the unregistered foreign exchange transactions remitted 472 billion 300 million won (443962000 US dollars) for Korean and Australian customers, which is a transaction driven by encrypted money.

Although KCS has not disclosed any legal actions against these enterprises at present, it says it will continue to work hard to investigate similar activities and illegal use of illegal goods such as encrypting money, money laundering and smuggling drugs.