President Lee orders seizure and forfeiture of hoarded goods, saying sanctions are ineffective

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[Financial News] President Lee Jae Myung on the 6th called for strong measures, including seizure and forfeiture, over hoarding of certain items such as syringes, saying that "there is no real sanction effect."
At the 20th Cabinet meeting and 7th Emergency Economic Review Meeting held that day at the main building of Cheong Wa Dae, Lee asked, "It seems that hoarding of syringes and similar items is sometimes uncovered. Isn't this all about making money?" He then asked, "Are items subject to hoarding confiscated?"
After being told that forfeiture is possible, Lee said, "If someone buys up 5 billion won worth of goods and just sits on them without selling, can't all of that be forfeited?"
When Oh Yu-kyung, commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, explained that authorities file complaints when goods are stored for more than five days at over 150% of the allowed level and then request police investigations so the excess items can be released into the market through online sales or other means, Lee pointed out, "That doesn't work."
Lee said, "If I hoard goods and make 3 billion won, but only get fined about 1 billion won, or if the president or a department head is punished in my place, the chairman still makes money. How is that a sanction?" He added, "Would anyone really serve three years in prison? Obviously it would be a suspended sentence, or at most a fine."
Bong Wook, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, reported that the Price Stabilization Act was amended in 2021 to explicitly require mandatory forfeiture, and that a new provision was introduced to collect the value when forfeiture is not possible.
Lee responded, "How are you actually going to apply that in practice?" He said, "Even if someone gets caught, the person in charge of operations just gets investigated once, pays a fine or receives a suspended sentence, and then keeps all the profits years later. Why wouldn't they keep hoarding?"
He continued, "We need a practical approach. It has to be effective." He added, "We created the forfeiture clause because it was necessary. Then it must actually be applied and the goods forfeited."
Lee instructed officials, "Under normal procedures, if everything is handled only after a trial ends years later, the clause is practically meaningless." He said, "We need real institutional fixes, such as allowing the government to dispose of the goods immediately on behalf of the owner, or putting them on the market and later collecting the equivalent amount."
He added, "If necessary, use an enforcement decree if that can solve it. If that still won't work, then change the law. Going forward, if someone hoards goods and disrupts market order, just confiscate them, even if the inventory gets tied up."
Lee concluded, "Would the market really be shocked if 100,000 syringes were forfeited?" He ordered officials to report separately and quickly, saying, "We need both long-term measures and immediate short-term action. If it is difficult to act right away, then simply seize items subject to hoarding."
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west@fnnews.com Sung Seok-woo Reporter