The customs agency was able to discover 1.99 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in illegal transactions in 2015 based on tips from the Financial Intelligence Unit, a report submitted Monday to a parliamentary committee said.

The FIU, established in November 2001 under the Financial Services Commission watchdog, gives what is known as suspicious transaction reports to the Korea Customs Service on cases that may be linked to money laundering, illegal foreign exchange activities and asset smuggling.

According to the report presented to the parliamentary finance committee at the request of Rep. Park Myung-jae, the FIU handed over 4,533 tips last year, which the customs agency used to take legal action in 258 cases.

The state was able to levy 49.2 billion won in taxes based on the information provided by the FIU.

In monetary terms, the sum involved in the nabbed cases was an increase of 73.9 percent from the previous year, according to the report. Some 1.05 trillion won had to do with smuggling assets to foreign countries, money laundering and foreign exchange violations, it said. Another 373.9 billion won was from customs law breaches.

"Continued improvement in the information system and in the know-how appear to be placing the customs agency's investigative monitoring on track," Park said.

"Although the use of FIU information is becoming more active, it is still minimal compared with the amount of information provided because the information going to the customs agency is limited," he said. "Information access should be more open, to the extent of not encroaching on personal data."   (Yonhap)