Customs officer honored for busting $73 mil. illegal FX scheme

Lee Jong-wook, left, commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, poses with Kim Min-hye, an official at the Busan Regional Customs, during an award ceremony at the Korea Customs Service headquarters at the Government Complex Daejeon, Thursday. Courtesy of Korea Customs Service

When Kim Min-hye, an official at the Busan Regional Customs' foreign exchange investigation team, was assigned to investigate a suspected illegal foreign exchange scheme involving cryptocurrency, she had little experience with digital assets.

"The term stablecoin itself was unfamiliar to me, and I had never personally traded cryptocurrency. Understanding how cryptocurrency transactions worked was quite a challenge," Kim told The Korea Times in a written interview, Tuesday.

Yet that challenge ultimately led to one of this year's largest foreign exchange crime busts at the Korea Customs Service.

Kim was named customs officer of the month in June after uncovering an unregistered foreign exchange business that illegally transferred about 108 billion won ($73 million) using Tether (USDT), a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, according to the customs agency.

The monthly award is presented to officers recognized for outstanding achievements in customs administration and investigations.

According to Kim, the suspect received USDT from an overseas accomplice and sold it through a domestic cryptocurrency exchange. The suspect then transferred the proceeds to used-car exporters, effectively operating an unlicensed foreign exchange business.

Investigators obtained the cryptocurrency transaction records from domestic exchanges and banks. They also secured chat messages from the suspect's mobile phone that detailed the illegal transactions.

"These pieces of evidence enabled us to uncover the full scope of the unregistered foreign exchange operation," she said.

Despite her initial unfamiliarity with digital assets, Kim said the case became an opportunity to learn.

"I naturally became more familiar with cryptocurrency while working on the case, and I actually found it interesting," she said. "Whenever I ran into something difficult, my colleagues and I exchanged ideas and worked through it together. Now I know enough about cryptocurrency to talk about it with some confidence."

Kim attributed the successful investigation to teamwork, saying, "I am honored to receive this award for a case that my teammates and I solved together. This recognition belongs to the entire team. I'm grateful to my colleagues, and I will continue contributing to efforts to combat illegal foreign exchange activities."