Korean loses appeal for millions seized on false customs report

The case of Lu Yu-chen was tossed out by the Supreme Administrative Court, the highest ruling court in Taiwan. The court maintained that in confiscating NT$14.7 million — the difference between the actual amount and what Lu declared — officials of Taipei Customs had followed standard procedure in their handling of Lu's false report, which violated the requirement that anyone in possession of over US$10,000 in cash must accurately report the amount.

Lu boarded a Cathay Pacific flight from Taipei-to-Seoul last October with US$140,000 and 30 million Japanese yen in his possession. When filling out the customs declaration card, Lu dropped one zero in declaring the dollar sum and took out another two when reporting the yen. Taipei custom officials searched Lu and discovered his false declaration and confiscated NT$14.7 million from him.

Lu claimed that he was in a rush to bring the money to his sister and missed the extra zeros. He had appealed and lost his case to the Ministry of Finance before turning to the Supreme Court.

The verdict of the Supreme Court upheld the seizing of the NT$14.7 million from Lu. The court said it did not matter whether Lu “forgot” the zeros or if he purposely failed to report the accurate amount; Taipei Customs not only did not violate any laws in confiscating Lu's millions, they upheld them.

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