As 2023 begins in earnest, we would like to take this opportunity to make some observations on trends that impacted the practice of white collar criminal defense and compliance in Korea in the past year.  As further discussed below, there is ongoing impact arising from the re-balancing of investigative authority between the police and prosecutors, a reform which began in 2021.  Another notable trend in 2022 was a surge of in-house financial crimes, which became the subject of high profile media coverage.  Additionally, at the end of 2021, the Supreme Court issued a decision which has had a material impact on the scope of directors’ duties in Korean companies.  Lastly, the trend towards a sustained level of activity by companies in engaging internal investigations continues, and we explore some issues which have arisen in cases the past year.

This issue includes:

• Latest Prosecution Reforms and Criminal Investigation Trends
• Prevention and Management of Large Scale In-House Financial Crimes
• Increasingly Stringent Application of the Director’s Duty to Monitor and Supervise the Company
• Recent Trends in Internal Investigations

This content is also available in Kim & Chang’s Korea Legal Insight 2023(link), where you can find out more updates and outlooks on Korea’s legal developments in 2023.