Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds

The Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters is to conduct the necessary investigation in order to make the return under the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article.

Where the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters finds it necessary for the investigation under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the Chief may make inquiries to public offices or public or private organizations and request reports of necessary matters.

Where, as a result of the investigation under the provisions of paragraph (1) or for other reasons, the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters has identified a person who is to receive return under the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, the Chief must notify that person of the procedures necessary to receive that return promptly (or, where any of the circumstances listed in the items of that paragraph exists, promptly after that circumstance has ceased).

Where, with respect to the property kept in custody under the provisions of Article 19-5 (including, where a transfer prescribed in the items of Article 19-6, paragraph (4) has occurred, the property pertaining to that transfer; hereinafter referred to as "property in custody"), the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters is still unable to identify the person who is to receive its return, or to ascertain that person's whereabouts, even after conducting the investigation under the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, the Chief must request the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency to give the public notice under the provisions of the following paragraph.

Upon the request under the preceding paragraph, the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency must promptly give public notice of the following matters:

the name of the prefectural police in which that Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters is established;

the date and time of the act giving rise to custody of that property in custody;

the name of the specified business operator pertaining to the account, etc. for measures to prevent criminal use pertaining to the act giving rise to custody of that property in custody, the number or other code of the account, etc., the full name or name of the account holder, and other matters pertaining to that act giving rise to custody (excluding the matters listed in the preceding item);

the particulars of that property in custody;

in addition to what is listed in the preceding items, matters specified by National Public Safety Commission Rules.

When making the return under the provisions of Article 19-6, paragraph (1), the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters must, as specified by National Public Safety Commission Rules, verify that the person is the person who is to receive that return, and make the return in exchange for a receipt.

Where the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters finds it necessary for the return under the provisions of Article 19-6, paragraph (1), the Chief may request the person seeking to receive that return to make a report or submit materials, or have a police officer question that person.

The authority under the provisions of the preceding paragraph must not be construed as having been granted for the purpose of criminal investigation.

If, even after six months (excluding the period during which any of the circumstances listed in the items of Article 19-6, paragraph (1) existed) have elapsed from the date of the public notice under the provisions of Article 19-8, paragraph (2), it is still not possible to identify the person who is to receive the return of the property in custody under the provisions of Article 19-6, paragraph (1) or to ascertain that person's whereabouts, or if the person who is to receive that return has waived the right to receive the return of the property in custody (hereinafter referred to as the "right to claim return"), the right to claim return with respect to that property in custody is extinguished. In this case, where that property in custody is property other than money, the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters must promptly liquidate it.

In this Section, the meanings of the terms listed in the following items are as prescribed respectively in those items.

"specified compensation for criminal damage" means money paid from compensatory funds, the amount of which is calculated pursuant to the provisions of the following Subsection and Subsection 3 on the basis of the value of the property lost through a criminal act warranting compensation;

"compensatory funds" means money kept in custody by the Public Safety Commission under the provisions of Article 19-14, paragraph (4) or Article 19-20, paragraph (3).

"criminal act warranting compensation" means a criminal act constituting fraud or another crime that harms a person's property, which has harmed that property by causing a person to make a transfer of property to a source deposit account, etc. (meaning, where a transfer of property listed in Article 19-5, paragraph (1), item (i) has been made with a deposit account, etc. as its source, that deposit account, etc. serving as the source; the same applies in Article 19-14 and Article 19-15, paragraph (2), item (iii));

"expenses" means expenses required for the notification under the provisions of this Section and other expenses specified by National Public Safety Commission Rules as to be defrayed from compensatory funds.

The Public Safety Commission is to pay specified compensation for criminal damage, as provided for in this Section, to a person who has suffered harm through a criminal act warranting compensation (including an organization that is not a corporation and for which a representative or manager has been designated) and has thereby lost property.

Where there has been succession by inheritance or other general succession with respect to a person prescribed in the preceding paragraph (hereinafter referred to as an "eligible victim"), the Public Safety Commission is to pay specified compensation for criminal damage, as provided for in this Section, to the heir or other general successor.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding Article, a person falling under any of the following items cannot receive payment of specified compensation for criminal damage:

the eligible victim who lost property through a criminal act warranting compensation or that person's general successor, in the case where the entire loss equivalent to the value of the property lost through that criminal act warranting compensation (or, where that property belongs to two or more persons in co-ownership, the person's share; the same applies hereinafter in this Article) has been made good or compensated (limited to the case where that making good or compensation was made by a person other than the eligible victim who lost that property through that criminal act warranting compensation or that person's general successor);

a person who committed a criminal act warranting compensation or participated in it as an accomplice, a person who gained an unlawful profit in connection with a criminal act warranting compensation, a person who has an unlawful cause of their own for having lost property through a criminal act warranting compensation, or any other person for whom receiving payment of specified compensation for criminal damage is inappropriate under socially accepted conventions, or, where an eligible victim falls under any of these persons, the general successor of that eligible victim.

Where the right to claim return has been extinguished under the provisions of Article 19-10 with respect to property in custody for which the act giving rise to custody is a transfer of property listed in Article 19-5, paragraph (1), item (i) (where liquidation under the provisions of Article 19-10 is to be carried out for that property in custody, limited to the case where that liquidation has been completed; the same applies in paragraph (5)), and there is a source deposit account, etc. for that transfer of property, the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters must request the Public Safety Commission that administers that prefectural police to commence procedures to pay specified compensation for criminal damage from the compensatory funds pertaining to that property in custody (hereinafter referred to as "procedures to pay specified compensation for criminal damage"). However, this does not apply where the value of that property in custody (or, where that property in custody has been liquidated under the provisions of Article 19-10, the money obtained by that liquidation; the same applies in paragraph (4) and Article 19-24, paragraph (1)) does not exceed the amount specified by National Public Safety Commission Rules as the amount of expenses expected to be required for the procedures to pay specified compensation for criminal damage.

Upon the request under the preceding paragraph, the Public Safety Commission is to, without delay, make a decision to commence procedures to pay specified compensation for criminal damage.

The decision under the preceding paragraph is to be made for each account, etc. for measures to prevent criminal use pertaining to a transfer of property listed in Article 19-5, paragraph (1), item (i).

When the Public Safety Commission has made a decision to commence procedures to pay specified compensation for criminal damage under the provisions of paragraph (2), it is to keep the property in custody pertaining to that decision in custody as compensatory funds.

Where the right to claim return has been extinguished under the provisions of Article 19-10 with respect to property in custody for which the act giving rise to custody is a transfer of property listed in Article 19-5, paragraph (1), item (i), and there is no source deposit account, etc. for that transfer of property, or the case falls under the case prescribed in the proviso to paragraph (1), the Chief of Prefectural Police Headquarters must request the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency to give the public notice under the provisions of the following paragraph.

Upon the request under the preceding paragraph, the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency must promptly give public notice that procedures to pay specified compensation for criminal damage will not be carried out for the property in custody for which that right to claim return has been extinguished.