"Illegal bond organization, many ex-convicts, so they are not afraid of prison" [Y Record]

■ Host: Anchor Yoon Jae-hee
■ Starring: Park Hyun-geun, Chairman of the Korea Bankruptcy Rehabilitation Lawyers Association

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◇Anchor> Critics continue to point out that the level of punishment is too low. In an interview, the chairman said this. You said that you are not afraid to go to jail because there are many ex-convicts in illegal private loan organizations, what do you mean?

◆Park Hyun-geun> Looking at the actual Supreme Court statistics, only 9.1% of people were sentenced to prison in the first trial for four years from 2019 to 2022. The remaining 39% were released on probation. In addition, 39% were fined. Actually, criminal punishment doesn't work strongly. And looking at the defendants charged with illegal bonds in 2020, 51% of these defendants were ex-convicts. In the end, criminal punishment alone has its limitations because of the large economic benefits. As I said earlier, under the current law, only the excess of the limited interest rate is invalid, so if someone who operates illegally is not caught, they will earn enormous profits. Even if they are caught, the principal agreement is not illegal, and up to 20% of the annual interest is recognized by law, so if you consider these economic benefits, you are not afraid of criminal punishment. Because of this problem, if the maximum interest rate exceeds twice, a bill has already been submitted to the National Assembly that prevents creditors from claiming the principal as an antisocial legal act, not only the interest agreement but also the entire monetary agreement. Recently, the government also announced that it would submit a bill to invalidate principal and interest in cases of sex exploitation collection, human trafficking, physical injury, assault, and intimidation.

◇Anchor> There is a practical problem that it is difficult to root out because the punishment is low while the profit is high. What areas should I supplement more?

◆Park Hyun-geun> As I said, first of all, the law related to this part in the National Assembly is the People's Livelihood Act. So, I would like to ask you to pass the Loan Business Act and the Interest Restriction Act as soon as possible. In addition, the government would like to request that sustainable policies, budgets, and professionals be deployed to drive out illegal lending businesses from a long-term perspective, and measures to protect and support the financially underprivileged who are flocking to illegal private finance should be expanded.



Excerpted from the conversation: Lee Mi-young, editor of the digital news team

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