[Woori Bank Embezzlement] Financial Supervisory Service Audits Woori Bank Accounting Firm

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] The Financial Supervisory Service has begun preparations to initiate an inspection of Anjin Accounting Corporation, which was responsible for the external audit of Woori Bank, where an employee embezzlement case amounting to 61.4 billion KRW occurred.

According to the police and others on the 1st, the embezzlement incident at Woori Bank took place between 2012 and 2018. It is reported that Woori Bank employee Mr. A embezzled a provisional total of 61,452,146,000 KRW to an unknown account on three occasions: October 12, 2012, September 25, 2015, and June 11, 2018.

Anjin Accounting Corporation was responsible for the external audit of Woori Bank from 2004 to 2019, during which it issued an "unqualified" audit opinion on Woori Bank and gave a "passing grade" on the internal accounting control system.

If the Financial Supervisory Service formally initiates an inspection following an on-site investigation, the contents contained in the audit working papers held by Anjin Accounting Corporation are expected to play a crucial role in determining whether the accounting firm was at fault.

However, since the initial embezzlement occurred about 10 years ago, there are concerns that the audit working papers may no longer be available due to the expiration of the mandatory retention period. According to current law, auditors are required to retain audit working papers for 8 years. Materials beyond this period may be difficult to access.

On the 29th of last month, Financial Supervisory Service Governor Jeong Eun-bo stated to reporters after a meeting with CEOs of foreign financial companies that he is considering initiating an inspection of the accounting firm for Woori Bank.

Governor Jeong pointed out, "Accounting firms must verify whether cash on hand definitely exists and whether it exists as inventory assets during audits," adding, "We need to see why the investigation was not properly conducted for some reason."

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