A man in his 30s sentenced to 5 years in prison for embezzling 12 billion won of company funds and losing it in gambling

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A company employee who embezzled company funds and squandered them on gambling was sentenced to prison.

On the 30th, according to the legal community, the Criminal Division 12 of the Seoul Eastern District Court (Chief Judge Park Sang-gu) sentenced a man in his 30s, Mr. A, who was arrested and indicted on charges of embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, to five years in prison and ordered him to pay 5.3 billion won in compensation.

Mr. A, after losing all his assets on an illegal gambling site in 2019, rejoined the company where he had worked for several years in March of last year to secure living expenses.

Assigned to handle financial tasks at the company, Mr. A is believed to have embezzled about 12 billion won of company funds by creating false accounting expenditure records 137 times over a year and transferring the money to his own bank account.

Since expenditure details were approved without suspicion even without attaching supporting documents, he committed the crime. He manipulated expenditure slips using the company's digital certificate and one-time password (OTP) cards. The embezzled money was used for gambling and stock investments.

At that time, Mr. A's company was reported to be in poor financial condition, with accumulated deficits reaching about 84 billion won, employees' salaries frozen for five years, and the largest shareholder contributing hundreds of billions of won of personal assets.

The court stated, "Although some of the embezzled funds were returned, the victim company suffered significant damage to the point of being at a crossroads for its survival," and added, "Mr. A's crime is very serious as he committed it by exploiting the company's trust."

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