Employee Secretly Issuing Mobile Gift Certificates Worth Tens of Billions Over 6 Years Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] An employee who secretly issued and sold mobile gift certificates worth tens of millions of won over six years was sentenced to prison in the first trial.

On the 30th, according to the legal community, the Criminal Division 11 of the Seoul Western District Court (Chief Judge Moon Byung-chan) sentenced A (37), who was indicted on charges of breach of trust and fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, to three years in prison.

A, who joined B Group in August 2013, was tried on charges of secretly issuing mobile gift certificates worth approximately 1.95 billion won in 321 cases from November 2014 until June last year, one month before his resignation, which could be used at group affiliates.

From November 2014 to April 2018, A was in charge of issuing gift certificates by receiving purchase requests from group affiliates, and he issued gift certificates worth about 1.197 billion won by falsifying the purchase request forms and approving them himself.

After moving to another group affiliate in May 2018, he received access information to the issuance system from his successor in charge of mobile gift certificates, claiming it was for "customer service purposes," and embezzled about 752 million won in the same manner.

It was also investigated that A secured cash by selling the issued mobile gift certificates at a discount and used the money for gambling.

The court stated, "The defendant committed the crime over a long period by exploiting his position as the person in charge of issuing mobile gift certificates, and the total face value of the gift certificates amounts to 1.9 billion won, indicating the severity of the crime." It added, "The actual amount used from the issued gift certificates is about 1.6 billion won," and "Considering that the defendant repaid 35 million won and the company has seized assets under the defendant's name to recover part of the damages, these factors are taken into account in sentencing."

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