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【Main Issues and Holdings】
[1] Purport of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act penalizing any person who engages in foreign exchange affairs without registration
Standard for determining whether an individual engaged in a foreign exchange affair, specifically “payment, collection and receipt between the Republic of Korea and a foreign country,” stipulated in Article 3(1)16(b) of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act without registering it as business with the Minister of Economy and Finance in violation of Article 8(1) and (3) of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act
[2] In a case where Party A is a non-resident foreign national, Party B is a resident foreign national, and the criminal defendant is a Korean national and resident; the criminal defendant conspired with Parties A and B to engage in financial transactions (arbitrage trading) such as selling virtual assets purchased abroad domestically; they agreed that 50% of the price difference would be obtained by Party A, 45% by the criminal defendant, and 5% by Party B respectively; the criminal defendant then sold the virtual assets, including Bitcoin, received from Party A on a domestic cryptocurrency exchange, and transferred the proceeds to multiple domestic bank accounts designated by Party A; the transferred funds were either remitted abroad through overseas remittance companies operating in Korea or transferred to the accounts of other residents, eventually being attributed to residents in Korea; and the criminal defendant was charged with violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act for engaging in unregistered foreign exchange affair through these financial transactions and earnings, the case holding that the criminal defendant had engaged in a foreign exchange affair under Article 3(1)16(b) of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act
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