Chongryon-Linked Insurer Raided for Avoiding Money Seizure

December 17, 2017

Tokyo- Japanese police on Sunday raided about 30 sites related to an insurer affiliated with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, for the firm's alleged concealment of tens of millions of yen in an attempt to avoid seizure by a Japanese debt collection body.

The locations searched by investigators from Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department and others on suspected obstruction of compulsory execution of business included the head office in Tokyo of the insurance firm, called Kongo Hoken, and the residence of its president.

The police aim to fully uncover the case by examining documents and other materials confiscated through the raid.

The company allegedly withdrew late last year tens of millions of yen from multiple accounts and concealed the money to avoid seizure by Resolution and Collection Corp., which took over claims from Chogin Tokyo Shinyo Kumiai, a bankrupt credit cooperative linked to Chongryon, investigative sources said.

Also among the sites targeted in the raid were those in prefectures including Hokkaido, Miyagi, Osaka and Hiroshima. Hundreds of officers, including some 100 from the MPD, were mobilized for the inspections. The search at the insurer's head office continued for about nine hours.

Kongo Hoken, set up in 1977, is one of business entities under Chongryon, according the website of the association and other sources. It mainly sells life insurance products to Korean residents in Japan.

RCC sued Chongryon in 2005 over Chogin-related bad loans. In 2007, Tokyo District Court ordered Chongryon to pay to RCC the full amount of some 62.7 billion yen demanded by the debt collection body. Jiji Press