Extradition to South Korea—Heung Joo Kim

A Korean national who was the subject of an Interpol “Red Notice,” has been arrested in New Jersey by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [hereinafter ICE] agents.^[1] Heung Joo Kim is wanted in South Korea for embezzling stock and currency valued at US$8 million.^[2]

The Compliance Enforcement Unit [hereinafter CEU] at ICE headquarters discovered that Mr. Kim was living in the United States when agents cross-referenced fingerprints received from Interpol and Korean officials against the US-VISIT Automated Biometric Identification System.^[3] US-VISIT is a program run by the Department of Homeland Security [hereinafter DHS], and it stands for United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology.^[4] Mr. Kim’s fingerprints were stored in the US VISIT database when he entered the US as a visitor in December, 2004.^[5]

The investigation began last month when the CEU received several thousand fingerprints from Interpol, which were immediately cross-referenced in the US-VISIT databases.^[6]

Mr. Kim is now in ICE custody facing an extradition request from South Korea.^[7]

According to the terms of the extradition treaty between the US and South Korea, financial crimes are included in the offenses for which extradition is available. The treaty contains a dual-criminality clause which states that “an offense shall be an extraditable offense if, at the time of the request, it is punishable under the laws in both Contracting States by deprivation of liberty for a period of more than one year.”^[8] Embezzlement is a crime in both countries.^[9]

---

[1] ICE, Fugitive in $8 Million Korean Stock Fraud Nabbed, Nov. 7, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] See DHS, Fact Sheet: US-VISIT Program, available here (last visited Nov. 9, 2005).
[5] ICE, supra note 1.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Extradition Treaty, June 9, 1998, U.S.-S. Korea, art. 2, para. 1, S. Treaty Doc. No. 106-2 (1999).
[9] See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 et seq.; Global Legal Information Network, Summary: Act on the Regulation and Punishment, etc. of Secretion of Proceeds from Illegal Activity, available here (last visited Nov. 9, 2005).