OSTEM Implant Employee Embezzling 198 Billion Won Had Gone 'All In' on Stocks

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] It has been revealed that Lee Mo (45), an employee who embezzled company funds from Osstem Implant, invested the entire embezzled amount of 198 billion KRW in stocks.

According to Yonhap News on the 9th, Lee used the embezzled 198 billion KRW to purchase stocks each time he embezzled funds in eight separate instances. Even before acquiring 3.92 million shares of Dongjin Semichem worth 143 billion KRW in October last year, he had invested in stocks using the previously embezzled 55 billion KRW.

Considering that Lee returned 10 billion KRW embezzled around March last year to the company account, it is presumed that he initially made profits through stock investments.

As he increased the scale of embezzlement, Lee embezzled 45 billion KRW before October and invested it in stocks, but it is reported that he suffered significant losses.

Investigators estimate that Lee embezzled 143 billion KRW all at once in October last year to cover the accumulated losses.

However, even the Dongjin Semichem shares (3.92 million shares) purchased with the 143 billion KRW continued to decline after Lee’s acquisition, and when it became practically impossible to recover the embezzled funds, Lee appears to have sold the stocks and used the proceeds to purchase gold bars and real estate.

In fact, from December 13 to 20 last year, he sold approximately 2.6 million shares of Dongjin Semichem worth 83.7 billion KRW, and from December 18 to 28, he purchased 851 gold bars weighing 1 kg each, worth 68 billion KRW. Additionally, from October to December last year, he transferred over 10 billion KRW in dispersed amounts from his stock account to accounts belonging to himself and his wife.

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