Employee of Osstem Implant Arrested for Embezzlement of 198 Billion Won... "Risk of Flight and Evidence Destruction"

Employee Lee Mo (45) of Osstem Implant, accused of embezzling 198 billion won of company funds, is entering the Gangseo Police Station in Seoul on the morning of the 6th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Lee Mo (45), an employee of Osstem Implant accused of embezzling 198 billion won of company funds, was arrested on the 8th.

Seoul Southern District Court duty judge Lee Hyo-shin issued an arrest warrant for Lee, who is charged with embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, stating, "There is a risk of flight and evidence destruction."

Lee waived his right to attend the suspect interrogation (warrant substantive examination) before his arrest, so the hearing was conducted in writing without the presence of the suspect and his lawyer.

Lee, who worked as the head of the finance team at Osstem Implant, disappeared on December 30 last year and was caught at his home in Paju, Gyeonggi Province on the 5th of this month.

Lee is suspected of embezzling a total of 198 billion won by transferring 5 billion won of company funds to his own account around March last year and then restoring it, continuing until the end of that year.

Among the embezzled funds, Lee reportedly traded a large amount of Dongjin Semichem stocks with 143 billion won in October last year, incurring a loss of about 30 billion won after reselling them. He also purchased 851 gold bars weighing 1kg each (market value about 68 billion won). Of these, 497 bars were seized at the time of Lee's arrest, but the whereabouts of the remaining 354 bars (about 28 billion won) are unknown.

The police froze the account containing 25.2 billion won, including proceeds from the sale of 550,000 Dongjin Semichem shares that Lee disposed of. They also confirmed that Lee used 7.5 billion won of the embezzled funds to purchase real estate under the names of his wife and sister-in-law and plan to apply for "pre-indictment seizure and confiscation preservation" to prevent voluntary disposal.

The police plan to focus their investigation on whether there are accomplices who helped Lee with the crime. The day before, they summoned two finance team employees who worked under Lee as witnesses for questioning.

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