President Lee Jae Myung passes the question of whether to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers to the National Assembly, boosting the Democratic Party's hardline push for full abolition. Legal experts warn the move could leave ordinary fraud victims without recourse.

President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a press conference marking the first anniversary of his inauguration, held at Cheong Wa Dae's Yeongbingwan on Monday. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a press conference marking the first anniversary of his inauguration, held at Cheong Wa Dae's Yeongbingwan on Monday. [Yonhap]

By Yang Geun-hyuk, The Herald Business

As the political establishment prepares to finalize revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act following the June 3 local elections, President Lee Jae Myung has passed the central question — whether to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers — to the National Assembly. Analysts say the move effectively lends momentum to the Democratic Party of Korea's party-line position, adopted in February, calling for the complete abolition of those powers.

The development raises the likelihood that prosecutors at the new Public Prosecution Service, set to replace the current prosecution system when the Prosecutors' Office is dissolved in October, will be stripped of the authority to conduct supplementary investigations. Legal experts have repeatedly warned that the change could cause everyday fraud cases affecting ordinary citizens to be buried or leave victims waiting far longer for a resolution.

According to Supreme Prosecutors' Office statistics released Saturday, supplementary investigations were conducted in 25,152 of the 55,174 referred cases processed by 12 front-line prosecutors' offices in March and April — a supplementary investigation rate of 45.59 percent. In March, 12,422 of 26,426 referred cases (47.01 percent) went through supplementary investigation before a disposition was issued; in April, the figure was 12,730 out of 28,748 (44.28 percent). The data was compiled from front-line offices under six high prosecutors' offices that handled the highest volumes of referred cases last year. Cases reflected in the statistics include those referred by police and special judicial police, cases referred following an objection after a non-referral decision, and cases re-referred after a prosecutor-requested reinvestigation following a non-referral.

The routine use of supplementary investigation in front-line casework has the broader legal community worried about the investigative vacuum that abolition would create. One sitting prosecutor said "it is extremely difficult for the very person who conducted an investigation to admit their findings were wrong and reverse course," adding that prosecutors routinely correct charges that were misapplied during the initial police investigation. A lawyer well versed in criminal cases said abolishing supplementary investigation powers would eliminate the function of grading police investigations. "Even now, many cases where prosecutors ask police to reinvestigate are simply ignored or sent back with no change in findings," the lawyer said. "Any room to correct that would disappear."

If, as the Democratic Party's hardliners propose, Public Prosecution Service prosecutors are limited to requesting supplementary investigations from police rather than conducting them directly, experts forecast a worsening of the so-called "case ping-pong" problem that emerged after earlier reforms to investigative authority. In a statement issued June 9, the advisory committee of the Prosecution Reform Task Force under the Office of the Prime Minister said that "since the adjustment of investigative authority, shoddy investigations and investigative delays have already become routine in practice, and on top of that, the circular drift of cases between agencies — the so-called case ping-pong problem — is clearly worsening," and warned that "a blanket ban on supplementary investigation by prosecutors would not resolve existing problems but would instead structurally entrench and deepen them."

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)

Experts say cases in which a complainant's objection overturns a police non-referral decision and sends the case to prosecutors will become even harder to resolve once supplementary investigation powers are abolished.

Reversing a police non-referral and securing an indictment through direct supplementary investigation is not confined to high-profile cases involving prominent politicians or corporations. It happens frequently in everyday fraud and other street-level crimes that any ordinary person could encounter.

Seven prior fraud convictions — yet police cleared a woman who swindled her neighborhood acquaintances

The Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office Criminal Division 2 (chief prosecutor Lee Gyeong-seok) indicted a woman in her 60s, identified only as A, on fraud charges on May 29. She is accused of obtaining roughly 25 million won (about $18,400) worth of seafood on credit from one acquaintance between 2019 and early 2024, and defrauding another acquaintance of 24 million won in cash under the guise of a loan between late 2023 and early 2024, despite having neither the ability nor the intention to repay either debt.

The case began in October 2024 when the two victims each filed a complaint against A with police. Police issued a non-referral decision on both complaints in January last year. After the complainants filed objections, the cases were forwarded to prosecutors, who conducted their own supplementary investigation and ultimately indicted A on fraud charges.

Police had initially determined that A had the capacity to repay her debts and that evidence of deception toward the victims was unclear. Prosecutors, through direct investigation, established that A had been insolvent since 2015 and had effectively lived off borrowed money with no real income. They also uncovered that she had six prior convictions for fraud and seven cases closed with non-referral decisions, and determined that she had used similar methods to repeatedly extract money from women in her neighborhood — her so-called "neighborhood sisters."

Organized virtual asset investment fraud ring caught only after two supplementary investigation requests and direct prosecutorial probe

The Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office Wonju Branch Criminal Division 2 (chief prosecutor Shin Yeong-sam) indicted three men in their 60s on charges of fraud and violation of the Act on Similar Receiving of Funds on June 2. The men are accused of collecting 57 million won from victims between mid-May and early June 2019 by falsely claiming that a virtual asset they had developed could be used like cash at medical facilities, that investing through hospital partnerships would guarantee returns with no principal loss, and that they operated mines and factories in Indonesia that would secure both principal and profits.

In this case as well, police issued a non-referral decision in October 2024, and the case reached prosecutors only after the victims filed objections. Prosecutors requested supplementary investigations from police on two separate occasions and then conducted their own direct investigation before bringing the men to trial.

During the supplementary investigation, prosecutors confirmed that the virtual asset exchange where the three men had claimed their coin was set to be listed had suspended withdrawals — a measure taken due to financial difficulties including unpaid taxes and unrecovered loans. Prosecutors also investigated each of the hospitals the group claimed to have partnered with and gathered evidence that the men had lied while soliciting investments. They also obtained recordings in which the suspects had pressured victims to withdraw their complaints.


yg@heraldcorp.com