Illegal capital outflow has almost tripled here over the past five years, a lawmaker revealed Thursday citing the data from Korea Customs Service.

A total of 22 cases of assets moving abroad illegally were confirmed last year, up from six in 2006, according to Rep. Kwon Kyoung-seok of the ruling Grand National Party.

The amount also more than tripled from 49.8 billion won to 152.8 billion won ($140.9 million) during the same period, Kwon said.

Over the past five years, the cases of money laundering also increased from eight cases worth 6.9 billion won in 2006 to 43 cases worth 92.4 billion won last year.

A man set up paper exporting companies in Hong Kong and Singapore and illegally siphoned off personal assets of 2.4 billion won overseas under the excuse of brokerage fees.

Another company had evaded 2.1 billion won in customs tariffs by fabricating the import prices of machinery parts.

Meanwhile, the number of crimes related to foreign currency transactions was 11,223 last year worth 14.37 trillion won.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)