Chun Doo-hwan Act

So-called Chun Doo-hwan Act (전두환법/全斗煥法) refers to a set of provisions of the Act on Confiscation regarding Crimes Committed by Civil Servants (공무원범죄에 관한 몰수 특례법/公務員犯罪沒收特例法), which was passed by the National Assembly in June 2013 and came into force on July 12, 2013.

Chun Doo-hwan is a controversial Korean Army general who served as the leader and a dictator of South Korea from 1979 to 1988, ruling as an unelected military strongman from December 1979 to September 1980, and the fifth President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. Under the Kim Young-sam government, Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the Gwangju Massacre, but later pardoned by President Kim with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung, whom Chun himself had sentenced to death some 20 years earlier.

Key words
civil servant crime, confiscation, search and seizure, fine, retroactive legislation

Content of the Act
This special Act provides that:
 * Unlawful assets of a criminal, which were knowingly acquired and increased by a third party including relatives, can be forfeited. Article 9-2.
 * Public prosecutors may, when deemed necessary for confiscation and additional imposition, demand the appearance of related persons, provision of taxation data and financial transaction information, court issuance of the search and seizure warrant, and so on. Article 9-3.
 * Statutory limitation for confiscation and additional imposition on specified crimes committed by civil servants shall be extended to ten years. Article 9-4.

Campaign to Correct History in 1990s
In November 1995, President Kim Young-sam announced the beginning of a movement to enact retroactive legislation, naming the bill "Special Act on 5.18 Democratization Movement" in order to meet the citizens’ increasing demands to correct the 12.12 military coup in 1979 and the 5.18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980. As soon as the Constitutional Court declared Chun's actions as unconstitutional, the prosecutors began a reinvestigation. On December 3, 1995, Chun and 16 other leaders were arrested on charges of conspiracy and insurrection. At the same time, an investigation into the corruption of their presidencies was begun.

In March 1996, their public trial began. On August 26, 1996, the Seoul District Court issued a death sentence. On December 16, 1996, the Seoul High Court issued a sentence of life imprisonment and a fine in the amount of 220.5 billion won. On April 17, 1997, the judgement was finalized in the Supreme Court.

After his sentence was finalized, Chun began serving his prison sentence.

On December 22, 1997, Chun's life imprisonment sentence was commuted by President Kim Young-sam, on the advice of incoming President Kim Dae-jung.

Chun was still required to pay his massive fine, but at that point he had only paid 53.2 billion won, not quite a fourth of the total fine amount. Chun made a relatively famous quote, saying, "I have only 290 thousand won to my name." The remaining 167.3 billion won was not yet collected, and it gives rise to the demand for such extraordinary Chun Doo-hwan Act.

Punishment by the Public
The public prosecutors' search and seizure involved hundreds of fine arts and sculptures found at the residences and offices of Chun and his sons on July 16, 2013. The Prosecutors' Office is investigating to identify which ones belong to the former president and go through a formal seizure procedure regarding the items confirmed as hidden assets under borrowed names.

Earlier, it was reported that the Prosecutors Office had extensively traced bank accounts of the Chun family, locating almost 10 billion worth fortune suspected to be the former president's secret assets. Then the prosecution confirmed that Chun Jae-yong sold a J Villa in Itaewon-dong, Seoul, liquidating it into some billon won.

Meanwhile, prosecutors believe that a large sum of hidden assets may have been shifted abroad through Blue Adonis Corporation, a company established by Chun Jae-kook in a tax haven of British Virgin Islands, which was disclosed in June 2013 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ 국제탐사보도언론인협회). They are currently tracing the minutest details of foreign exchange done by both Jae-kook and his publishing company, Sigongsa.

In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that former President Chun must pay 220.5 billion won as a fine but he refused to make the full payment, claiming that he does not have any asset left. What Chun still has a default of 167.2 billion won caused the national sentiment to enact the Chun Doo-hwan Act.

Surrender of Chun family
Former strongman Chun Doo Hwan and his family have avoided a massive criminal fine for misdeeds in office. However, the climate drastically changed when Park Geun-hye, daughter of Park Chung Hee disgraced by General Chun after 1979 coup, was inaugurated as President.

In September 2013, before Chun's sons and relatives were summoned one by one by the prosecutors' office, Chun and his family agreed to pay off 167.2 billion won (equivalent to U$154 million) and promised to give the government a list of assets it can seize, including the family’s ancestral mountains that contain family graveyards. The only request made by the former president was that he and his wife be allowed to live out the rest of their days in a pricey house in Yeonhui-dong, even if the government takes it over.

The family was clearly giving in to an unprecedented assault by prosecutors on its assets, suspected to be tied to illegal wealth accumulated by the former dictator Chun.