"They're My Jewelry, All of Them!"... Suitcase Packed with Cash Revealed

[Please open the door.]

When the apartment front door showed no signs of opening for two hours, even the police showed up.

[This is a joint house search by the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service, but they won't open the door.]

The homeowner imported e-cigarettes while falsely declaring raw materials and underreporting sales, refusing to pay a total of 6.4 billion won in national and customs taxes.

A locked suitcase was discovered in the master bedroom, but the tax delinquent's family feigned ignorance, claiming they knew nothing.

[I said I don't know. (You have something this big in your house and you just don't know about it?)]

Inside the bag were 1.02 billion won in cash and checks.

There was also a businessman suspected of staging a fake divorce to evade collecting 550 million won in delinquent taxes, while living in a large apartment under his ex-wife's name.

In the living room display cabinet, about a dozen bottles of expensive liquor were on display, and bundles of foreign currency and gold pieces poured out of the safe.

[This is all my jewelry, every single bit of it.]

The first joint search targets of the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service are 16 high-amount and malicious delinquents.

Large amounts of cash, luxury bags, and precious metals were successively uncovered at the delinquents' homes, and it was revealed that some delinquents had traveled abroad about 120 times over five years.

As a result of the joint search, a total of 1.3 billion won worth of hidden assets, including 1 billion won worth of cash and checks and luxury bags, were seized, and a promise was secured to pay back 15 million won in delinquent taxes in installments per month.

This joint search follows the government's stance to tear down walls between ministries.

The National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service evaluated that this joint crackdown, which shared each agency's experience and technology, raised the search success rate and seizure performance compared to single crackdowns.

[Kang Jong-hoon / Director General of the Collection and Legal Affairs Bureau, National Tax Service: I would like to say that we succeeded in seizing about 80%, succeeding in finding hidden assets, and if you look at it that way, normally speaking, you can see that it is a fairly high, very, very high figure.]

The National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service plan to regularize the exchange of delinquent information and continue joint responses.

Cash '1 billion won' found in a bag... First joint cooperation search by 'tax grim reapers' (D Report, July 23, 2026)

Reported by Hong Young-jae | Written by Lee Se-young | Video Editing by Jung Sung-hoon | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.