A senior official at South Korea’s National Tax Service proposed revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act, strengthening rules for the seizure of personal holdings of virtual assets

ME News message: On July 20 (UTC+8), a South Korean National Tax Service official proposed legislative amendments, saying it is necessary to revise the Criminal Procedure Act in order to seize virtual assets (digital assets) held by individuals. Individual holding of digital assets refers to cases where a person directly holds the private keys, without delegating a third party (such as an exchange) to custody or dispose of them.

This year in June, four individuals in South Korea, including Zhang Xiyuan, the head of the National Tax Service investigation team, published a paper titled “Limitations and Legislative Review of Self-Custodied Virtual Asset Seizure Execution” in the journal Criminal Policy Research of the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice. The paper explains that the requirements and procedures for transferring to public wallets or for obtaining control rights must be separately specified. The paper first points out that when a suspect or owner holds access means such as private keys, the search warrant must clearly state: the type and quantity of the digital assets to be seized; the verified addresses; the addresses to be transferred to; the transfer method; and the storage method after the transfer. In addition, due to risks such as theft associated with transferring assets to a wallet managed by a single institution, the paper proposes a method of transferring to a joint address jointly managed by the court and investigative agencies. (Source: PANews)