Justice Minister Park Sang-ki has ordered the prosecution to thoroughly investigate crimes related to virtual currencies like bitcoin.
 
The Justice Ministry said Thursday that the minister issued the order for a wide range of crimes related to virtual money, including the usage of such money as a speculative instrument.
 
As examples of such crimes, Park cited raising investment in virtual money through multilevel marketing, virtual currency mining scams and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act through the illegal transaction of virtual money. Drug dealing using virtual currency, money laundering via virtual currency transactions and leaking personal information by hacking exchanges were also among the crimes listed.
 
Park’s instruction came a day after the government convened a meeting of vice minister-level officials and devised emergency measures to tackle the frenzy over bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
 
At the meeting, participants decided to ban financial institutions from purchasing or investing in virtual currencies and bar minors from engaging in virtual currency dealings. They also decided to boost crackdowns and punishment for related crimes.