Frequently Asked Questions

Before the first police interview. Because the credibility of the first statement shapes every later stage, engage counsel as soon as you learn of a complaint or receive a summons. If you have already been interviewed, written opinions, supplementary statements, and evidence preservation can still adjust course. Bring a timeline and your message history to the first consultation.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Before the first contact from investigators — ideally while still weighing surrender or voluntary testing; if contact has come, before the first interview. Drug cases spread through accomplice statements, so setting the scope of the first statement matters, and each early step — sample submission, forensic attendance — needs judgment. Detention rates are high, so warrant preparation should also start early; and treatment records only gain weight with time.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Yes. Under the Military Court Act you may retain civilian counsel at every stage, from military police interviews to trial. A military judge advocate can be appointed as public defender, but independent outside counsel is the natural choice if you want distance from the organization. Because military cases interlace the Military Criminal Act, court procedure, and service-status proceedings, experience with military matters makes a real difference — and visitation logistics differ from civilian custody, so settle communication channels early.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Before the first military police interview — ideally before writing any statement for the disciplinary file, since one early document feeds all three parallel tracks (discipline, criminal, status review) and command pressure tends to extract damaging statements early. Blocking rank-driven contamination of witness accounts and fixing jurisdiction are also early tasks. Even mid-investigation, record review, supplementary statements, and procedural objections can still adjust course.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Do not fix the interview date on the spot. First confirm the case number, the substance of the allegation, and whether you are summoned as a suspect or a witness. You may request a schedule adjustment; use the time to organize the facts with counsel. In sex-crime cases the parties' statements are often the decisive evidence, so ask for your attorney to attend (Criminal Procedure Act art. 243-2) and correct the written record before signing.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Because many sex-crime cases are decided on the credibility of competing statements rather than physical evidence. Courts treat consistency as the core credibility test: even small shifts between your first police statement and later testimony read as reversal. The gravest mistake is filling uncertain memory with guesses. Separate what you know from what you don't, and organize a timeline with counsel before the interview (art. 243-2 allows counsel to attend).

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Within the scope of the warrant, forensics can reach messages, photos, videos, call and location records, and recovered deleted data. Searching beyond the stated allegation is unlawful, and you and your counsel may attend the examination and object to irrelevant exploration (Criminal Procedure Act arts. 121, 219). Even for a voluntary submission you may limit its scope — confirm both scope and procedure with counsel before handing over the device.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Reconstruct the transaction chronologically first: contracts, loan notes, transfer records, and messages that show the flow of funds and what was promised, plus where the money went. Because the issue is deception and intent at the time of receipt, rebuilding your finances and repayment plan as of that moment forms the backbone of the defense. Be careful with direct contact with the complainant, and organize the issues with counsel before appearing.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Ask to see the warrant and record how the allegation, items, and premises are specified. You may object on the spot to seizure beyond the warrant's scope, and counsel has a right to attend (arts. 121, 219) — call your attorney the moment execution begins. Demand the inventory of seized items, remember that voluntary submissions are yours to limit, and avoid improvised statements at the scene.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Investigators obtain transaction records from financial institutions under a court-issued warrant for account tracing; under the Real Name Financial Transactions Act, records cannot in principle be provided without one, and the accounts and period must be specified. Institutions normally notify the account holder, but notice can be deferred — the full flow of funds may already be under review. Prepare explanations and supporting records for transfers that need accounting.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Because economic cases are decided on documents. Investigators secure account flows, books, and contracts first, then use interviews to confirm their reading — and your best chance to supply context is early. A first statement that contradicts the records turns every later explanation into an excuse; conversely, an early written account with exhibits can reframe the investigation. Preserve emails, ledgers, and approval records now.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Do not argue the allegation over the phone. Confirm the case number, the basis of the summons, and your status, then ask to adjust the schedule. Drug cases usually begin from tips or accomplice statements, so the right response depends on what investigators already hold. Requests for voluntary accompaniment or urine/hair samples can be declined, but whether to comply is case-specific — consult counsel first and organize your timeline before the interview.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Not necessarily. Urine and hair tests have detection windows and are not the only proof of use: accomplice statements, messenger logs, transfers, and entry records can support a charge on their own. Conversely, a negative result is strong material for contesting the alleged timing and frequency — its meaning must be read within the whole evidentiary picture, along with the legality of how samples were obtained and handled.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Within the warrant's scope: messenger conversations including recovered deletions, contacts, call and location records, photos with metadata, financial app histories, and residual data from secure messengers. In drug cases the pairing of coded chat and transfer records is the core evidence. Forensics must stay within the stated allegation, and you and your counsel may attend and object to irrelevant exploration (arts. 121, 219) — do not waive that right.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Call counsel immediately to attend, and meanwhile verify and record how the warrant specifies the allegation, items, and premises. Route all interaction through one legal point of contact, and instruct staff at once that hiding or deleting materials can itself be evidence destruction. Object to seizure beyond the warrant — servers, personal devices — and secure the inventory. Afterward, map what was taken and stand up the defense framework for employee interviews without delay.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Define the purpose first — fact-finding, remediation, or preparing for an investigation — as it sets the scope and method. Principles: run it under counsel to protect the confidentiality of legal review; preserve emails, books, and approval records beyond suspicion of deletion; and sequence employee interviews with rank and conflicts of interest in mind. Keep the disposition — discipline, referral, self-reporting, production — open at the start; a clumsy internal review can itself invite spoliation suspicions.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Because with many actors and voluminous records, uncoordinated early statements from employees become the investigators' frame — often they assemble the full picture before the company does. The essentials: preserve records and map what has left the building; unify the point of contact; support employees through interviews; and manage company-individual conflicts. Add the decision whether to use self-correction or leniency programs, and the first week effectively sets the skeleton of the case.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

The same defense rights apply as in civilian investigations — silence, counsel (including a civilian attorney attending the interview), and review and correction of the record. Expect informal pressure inside the chain of command, but avoid off-the-record statements, and remember that written statements given in parallel disciplinary proceedings flow into the criminal file. Have counsel review any written statement before you submit it.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Start by reconstructing how your account or identity came to be used. These investigations typically begin with the account holder who received payment, and everything turns on whether you were exploited unknowingly or cooperated for compensation — transferring an account for payment is separately punishable under the Electronic Financial Transactions Act. Preserve chats, the circumstances of the account transfer, and any compensation records, and organize the facts with counsel before the first interview.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes · Criminal Organization Offenses

First, preserve everything that shows how you got involved — the job posting, instruction messages, call recordings, payment records — exactly as they are; deleting or tidying can itself look like spoliation. Investigators tend to infer intent from the outward role alone, so rebuild with concrete materials why the work looked legitimate — the hiring process, the form of instructions, ordinary-level pay — and file it as a written opinion. Never fill memory gaps with guesses in the first statement.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Because in multi-defendant cases the accomplices' statements define one another's roles. Investigations climb from lower-level participants upward, and an imprecise early statement that overstates your role hardens — combined with others' accounts — into member status. Conversely, a first statement that fixes the scope and context of your involvement with objective records becomes the baseline against later exaggeration or blame-shifting by co-defendants. Prepare the timeline, lines of instruction, and profit split with counsel, and never guess.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Yes. Detention turns on the gravity of the offense and the risk of flight or evidence destruction (Criminal Procedure Act art. 70), not on prior record. Offenses against minors carry heavy statutory ranges, so warrants are sought even against first offenders — especially where digital evidence is central. Once a warrant is requested, the review hearing usually follows within a day or two; prepare supporting materials with counsel beforehand.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Yes. Detention grounds (art. 70) apply regardless of position — and in corporate cases a CEO's very capacity to influence records and employees is often cited as a destruction risk. Warrants become likelier with large-scale embezzlement or breach of trust and suspected organized concealment. At the review hearing you must concretely show cooperation, the need to prepare a defense, and the impact of a management vacuum — so the case for non-detention should be built from the start of the investigation.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Yes — non-detention is the rule under the Military Court Act, with warrants issued by a military judge on the usual grounds. The military twist is that contact with unit members and rank-based influence over witnesses are readily framed as destruction risks, so the defense turns on answering that concern — proposing reassignment or no-contact arrangements works in practice. If a warrant is sought, a pre-detention hearing follows; prepare your materials before it.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Yes. Indecent assault by force (Criminal Act art. 298) carries up to 10 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 15 million, and first-offender status is only one sentencing factor. Courts weigh the manner of the act, the harm, the victim's stated wishes, and post-offense conduct together; aggravated provisions apply where minors or abuse of authority are involved. How the facts are framed early matters more than first-offense status.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Rape (art. 297) requires violence or intimidation; quasi-rape (art. 299) punishes exploiting a state of unconsciousness or inability to resist — with the same statutory range (a minimum of 3 years). In quasi-rape cases the dispute centers on whether the complainant was in fact unable to resist and whether the accused knowingly exploited it, so contemporaneous messages, CCTV, and witness accounts often decide the case. Preserve them early.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Sex offenses have not required a victim's complaint since 2013, so a settlement alone does not end the case; however, the victim's expressed wish not to punish is weighed meaningfully at charging and sentencing. In digital cases (Sexual Violence Punishment Act art. 14), takedown and deletion efforts are assessed alongside. Never contact the victim directly — approach only through counsel, or it may be treated as secondary harm or coercion.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Broadly three routes: inconsistencies that undermine the complainant's account; objective circumstances — messages before and after, the context of the meeting — indicating consent; or failure to specify the alleged facts. None of these surfaces on its own: the defense must preserve evidence early and frame the issues in written opinions. Abrupt reversals or contacting the complainant work against you.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

They differ. Registration (Sexual Violence Punishment Act art. 42) follows a final conviction for a registrable offense as a matter of law. Employment restrictions for child- and youth-related institutions (Juvenile Protection Act art. 56) and disclosure orders are set — or waived — by the court after assessing recidivism risk. Even where guilt is hard to contest, these ancillary orders are a separate battleground worth preparing for.

Related areas: Sex Crimes

Fraud (Criminal Act art. 347) requires deception that induces a mistaken disposition of property. The crux is deceptive intent at the time of receipt — mere failure to repay is not fraud; courts examine whether you then had the will and means to perform. The December 2025 amendment raised the range to up to 20 years' imprisonment or a KRW 50 million fine, with aggravation under the Specific Economic Crimes Act above KRW 500 million in gains.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Both betray a relationship of trust, but the object differs: embezzlement (art. 355(1)) is appropriating another's specific property in your custody; breach of trust (art. 355(2)) is violating a duty in handling another's affairs to gain a benefit and cause loss. Occupational capacity aggravates the range (art. 356), and the Specific Economic Crimes Act applies above KRW 500 million. The boundary is often itself contested.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

No. Embezzlement requires intent of unlawful appropriation — treating company funds as your own. Properly processed advances, approved business expenses, and temporary use premised on return are assessed differently. The recurring battleground is an executive's use of corporate funds: whether procedures like board resolutions were followed, whether the use served corporate interests, and how it was booked. Organize the supporting records early.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Investment loss alone is not a crime. Fraud arises when the business, its returns, or the use of funds was falsely described at the time of investment, or the funds were never intended for the agreed purpose; breach of trust arises from disposing of managed funds contrary to duty. The two axes are whether the pitch was true and whether funds were used as agreed — so offering materials, project records, and disbursement histories are the key evidence.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Three main types: insider trading on material nonpublic information, market manipulation, and unfair trading such as false statements or spreading rumors — punishable under art. 443 of the Capital Markets Act by a minimum of one year's imprisonment, aggravated by the size of gains. Unlicensed business and disclosure violations are also criminal. Regulatory review by the FSS or the exchange usually precedes the criminal case, so statements and submissions at that stage effectively set its course.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

It can. Restitution is a significant mitigating factor under the sentencing guidelines, and combined with the victim's wish not to punish it can also affect charging decisions. But repayment does not erase the offense — liability and sentencing are separate — and timing matters: early voluntary restitution reads as more genuine than payment on the eve of judgment. If resources are limited, structure partial payment, deposit, and settlement with counsel.

Related areas: Economic & Property Crimes

Yes. Even simple use can draw a prison term depending on the substance, frequency, and any involvement in distribution; where sale or brokering is added, first-offender status alone rarely secures a suspended sentence. The Narcotics Control Act sets ranges by type of dealing, and sentencing weighs recidivism risk heavily — commitment to abstinence, treatment history, living environment. For first offenses especially, an early treatment and rehabilitation plan is the practical defense.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Substantially. The Act punishes sale, brokering, and transfer more heavily than use or possession, and commercial distribution, import/export, and manufacture most heavily — some sale offenses carry life or a minimum of five years. What matters in practice is the boundary: pooling money for a joint purchase or sharing with acquaintances, if charged as sale or transfer, shifts the entire range. Contest early whether the charge matches what actually happened.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Yes. A substance lawfully prescribed abroad still violates the Narcotics Control Act if it is scheduled in Korea — THC products and certain appetite suppressants, sleep aids, and ADHD medications are typical, and use in a legalization jurisdiction can still be punished under the nationality principle. Personal medical imports require prior MFDS approval. If you have already brought it in or taken it, preserve the prescription and purchase records and prepare your account with counsel.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Article 52 of the Criminal Act allows mitigation or remission for surrender before the offense is detected, and the sentencing guidelines treat surrender and confession as mitigating factors — in drug cases also read as evidence of commitment to quit. But surrender means a voluntary report: appearing after the investigation has begun counts only as a favorable circumstance. Its timing, manner, and scope — especially anything touching accomplices — shape the whole case; plan it with counsel first.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

With records, not words: psychiatric treatment and counseling histories, completion of rehabilitation programs (e.g., the Korean Association Against Drug Abuse), an accumulated series of voluntary negative tests, attendance at recovery groups, and evidence of family and workplace support. A record built steadily across the investigation and trial moves the recidivism assessment far more than a one-off certificate — which is why treatment should begin at the outset of the case.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

It does. Recidivism risk is the axis of drug sentencing, and courts treat treatment and rehabilitation as its concrete proof. Conditional suspension of prosecution tied to education or treatment exists, and completed or planned treatment is regularly reflected in suspended sentences and mitigation. Voluntary participation carries more weight than court-ordered programs; choose among medical treatment, rehab centers, and recovery groups with counsel to fit the case.

Related areas: Drug Crimes

Most frequent are occupational embezzlement and breach of trust (art. 356) — corporate fund use, affiliate support, self-dealing — followed by wage-related cases, fraud complaints arising from investment or trade relationships, tax matters, and, for industrial employers, Serious Accidents Punishment Act cases. The common thread: civil disputes and management decisions arriving dressed as criminal complaints. Maintaining records of board resolutions and internal approvals is the surest preparation.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

A public official who receives money or benefits in connection with duties commits bribery (art. 129); the giver commits offering a bribe (art. 133). The battleground is duty-relatedness and quid pro quo — construed broadly by the courts, so a social-courtesy defense rarely holds. Amounts of KRW 30 million or more trigger heavy aggravation, and KRW 100 million or more can mean life or a minimum of ten years. In the private sector, art. 357 and the Improper Solicitation Act apply instead.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Breach of trust (art. 355(2)) requires disloyal conduct causing property damage to the principal. Trust-based bribery (art. 357) punishes receiving money upon an improper solicitation in that position — no corporate loss required; it is the private-sector counterpart of bribery, and the giver is punished too. A purchasing manager's kickback from a supplier is the classic case, and the two offenses can be charged together when loss also results.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Yes. Cartel conduct is the paradigm: the Fair Trade Act makes it a criminal offense for both the company and the individuals involved. Prosecution generally requires a KFTC referral (exclusive complaint system), so cases run KFTC investigation, deliberation, referral, then prosecutors. Conduct at the KFTC stage — scope of production, statements, and above all the leniency decision, whose value turns on timing and order — effectively determines the criminal exposure.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

The responsible managing officer — the person with ultimate authority over the business. Where a fatal industrial accident occurs and the duty to establish a safety-and-health system was breached, that officer faces a minimum of one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 1 billion (art. 6), with a separate corporate fine. Unlike the Occupational Safety and Health Act, it targets top management directly; the defense centers on proof that the system was genuinely built and run — budgets, staffing, risk assessments, inspection records.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Yes. Criminal liability attaches to the individual actor, so carrying out company instructions does not shield an employee who knowingly participated; joint-penalty provisions then fine the company alongside. The crucial point is where the company's interests diverge from yours — corporate counsel may not be defending you personally. If there is any sign you may become a suspect rather than a witness, consider separate counsel and plan the scope of your statement before the interview.

Related areas: White-Collar & Corporate Crimes

Three differences: substantive law (the Military Criminal Act adds offenses like desertion and insubordination), procedure (military police, prosecutors, and courts under the Military Court Act), and parallel tracks (discipline and fitness-for-service review run alongside the criminal case). Since the 2022 reform, sex offenses, death-related cases, and pre-enlistment offenses go to civilian authorities in peacetime — so first establish which track your case is on.

Related areas: Military Criminal

In principle, offenses by active-duty service members and military civilian employees. Since the July 2022 reform, however, three categories — sex offenses, cases involving a soldier's death, and pre-enlistment offenses — are investigated and tried by civilian authorities in peacetime. First-instance trials sit in regional military courts; appeals go to the Seoul High Court. Because jurisdiction determines the investigators, procedure, and forum, fixing it is the first step of any defense.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Desertion (Military Criminal Act art. 30) carries one to ten years' imprisonment in peacetime, with no fine option — so a conviction means arguing for a suspended sentence. The practical issues are whether an intent to evade service existed and the circumstances of departure: maladjustment, psychiatric conditions, or abuse within the unit weigh on both intent and sentencing, as do voluntary return and the length of absence. If you are still absent, plan the manner of return with counsel first.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Yes. The Military Criminal Act applies first between service members and sets heavier ranges — military indecent assault (art. 92-3) starts at one year's imprisonment with no fine option, unlike its Criminal Act counterpart. Rank hierarchy weighs heavily at sentencing, and discipline, removal from post, and separation review proceed in parallel. Since 2022 the criminal case itself runs in civilian courts in peacetime; the decisive difference is defending the service-status proceedings alongside.

Related areas: Sex Crimes · Military Criminal

Insubordination (art. 44) is refusing or resisting a superior's lawful order, punishable in peacetime by up to three years' imprisonment. Two elements are contested: the order's lawfulness — instructions unrelated to duty, unlawful, or personal are not orders — and its existence and the accused's awareness of a concrete, individualized command. Early statements about how the instruction was given and worded tend to decide the case, so record the facts precisely from the disciplinary stage.

Related areas: Military Criminal

They are separate in nature: discipline is an internal sanction under the Military Personnel Management Act, from reprimand to dismissal, while criminal punishment is imposed by a court. Both can proceed at once over the same conduct, and neither automatically binds the other. The practical trap is sequence and statements — written accounts produced for discipline routinely become criminal evidence, so treat the disciplinary stage with the same care and design both tracks within one defense strategy.

Related areas: Military Criminal

Yes. Cash collection and delivery, providing accounts, or managing relay equipment are charged as co-perpetration or aiding of fraud, with criminal-organization charges (art. 114) added where structure is shown. An I-thought-it-was-a-part-time-job defense fails once willful blindness is inferred from outsized pay, abnormal instructions, and methods — but the degree of intent and scope of participation remain genuinely contestable and drive both liability and sentence. Reconstruct precisely how you were recruited before the first interview.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Operating a gambling space (Criminal Act art. 247) carries up to five years' imprisonment or a KRW 30 million fine, and sports-based sites add National Sports Promotion Act violations with far heavier ranges. Distributors, exchangers, server managers, and promoters are punished as accomplices by role; organization charges under art. 114 shift the range further; and confiscation of proceeds runs alongside. Pinning down your role, period, and revenue share is where the defense starts.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Yes. Performing a role while knowing — or consciously disregarding — its criminal nature makes you a co-perpetrator or aider, and courts infer such intent from pay levels, secrecy, and the manner of instruction. High daily cash-courier fees and handling others' accounts, relays, or IDs are classic red flags. Conversely, a normal hiring process and duties that gave no reason to suspect can defeat intent. Preserve the job posting, chat logs, and payment records — do not delete them.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Yes. Article 114 punishes joining and participating in a criminal organization as well as forming one, even before the target crime is carried out, at the range of the intended offense (with possible reduction). Courts have recognized phishing call centers and gambling-site operations as such organizations. The issues are whether the group was a continuing, structured body and whether you joined knowing what it was — and since the line between mere participant and member moves the sentence dramatically, statements about hierarchy and role division call for great care.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

The test is functional control over the act: sharing the plan and performing a role essential to the whole makes a co-perpetrator; merely facilitating makes an aider. Courts weigh when and how long you participated, how replaceable the role was, the profit-sharing structure, and lines of instruction. In organized cases, accomplices' statements define one another — whoever is questioned first often fixes the others' positions — so pin your actual scope down with objective records such as messages and settlement ledgers.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Yes. The Act on Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds punishes not only disguising or hiding proceeds but also receiving them while aware of their nature (art. 4). Typical cases: letting money pass through a family member's account, or accepting suspicious funds as pay or settlement. Knowledge is inferred from amount, method, relationship, and context, and the money is subject to confiscation. Do not dispose of funds already received — disposal itself can read as concealment; organize the paper trail with counsel first.

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses

Under art. 114, a criminal organization requires a purpose of committing crimes punishable by death, life, or four years' imprisonment or more; continuity — a subsisting body rather than an ad hoc gathering; and structure — command and role division. Case law has broadened recognition to minimal command structures, and looser criminal groups are punished under the same article. The defense contests these elements: was it merely horizontal, one-off collusion; did the accused know of the structure; had the organization even formed when they joined?

Related areas: Criminal Organization Offenses