The Department of Justice has seized approximately $500,000 in assets traceable to corruption proceeds accumulated by Chun Doo Hwan, the former president of the Republic of Korea. This seizure brings the total value of seized corruption proceeds of President Chun to more than $1.2 million.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Executive Associate Director Peter T. Edge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Assistant Director Joseph S. Campbell of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement after the seizure warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was unsealed today.
“Chun Doo Hwan orchestrated a vast campaign of corruption while serving as Korea’s president,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “President Chun amassed more than $200 million in bribes while in office, and he and his relatives systematically laundered these funds through a complex web of transactions in the United States and Korea. Today’s seizure underscores how the Criminal Division’s Kleptocracy Initiative—working in close collaboration with our law enforcement partners across the globe—will use every available means to deny corrupt foreign officials and their relatives safe haven for their assets in the United States.”