A man in his 70s sentenced to 6 years in prison for embezzling hundreds of billions from his former workplace to fund personal business

Former CFO of Manufacturing Company Colluded with Former Subordinates to Embezzle 28.3 Billion KRW Over 5 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] A man in his 70s who embezzled money from the company he worked for and used it as operating funds for his current business was sentenced to prison.

The Criminal Division 12 of the Seoul Southern District Court (Presiding Judge Oh Sang-yong) announced on the 8th that it sentenced Jo Mo (70), former CFO of manufacturing company A, who was indicted for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (embezzlement), to six years in prison.

Also, Ha Mo (61), the accounting manager of company A who conspired with Jo to embezzle company funds, was sentenced to five years in prison, and Ha’s subordinate Kim Mo (53) was sentenced to two years and six months in prison with a three-year probation and 160 hours of community service.

They were indicted on charges of transferring approximately 28.3 billion won of company A’s funds to Jo’s personal business and their own accounts 498 times from January 2005 to January 2010.

Jo, who had served as CFO of company A since 1992, secretly operated a personal business from 1997. When his financial situation worsened, he colluded with the two subordinates to start transferring company funds to his personal company.

Even after Jo was discovered operating a personal business and resigned in July 2005, he established a new company under a different name and continued to receive business funds through Ha and Kim in the same manner as before, according to the investigation.

The embezzled money was used for Jo’s business funds and living expenses for Ha and Kim.

During this process, Ha and Kim manipulated accounting records to conceal the embezzlement, which was detected by the Financial Supervisory Service. Subsequent prosecution investigations revealed the full extent of Jo and others’ crimes.

The crimes occurred from 1997 while Jo was employed at company A, but acts before January 2005 were excluded from charges due to the statute of limitations.

Jo and Ha claimed, "Only 7 billion won of the claimed damages is actual damage to company A, and the rest is related to loan transactions and fund re-inflows during bill trading, not embezzlement."

However, the court ruled, "The crime is serious as they embezzled large sums over five years and manipulated accounting to conceal the crime. This caused significant damage, including suspension of company A’s stock trading, so punishment commensurate with responsibility is inevitable."

However, regarding Kim, the court granted probation, stating, "Kim fully admitted to the crime during the prosecution investigation and showed remorse, and appeared to have participated under the orders of superiors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.