A Man in His 30s Embezzled 4 Billion Won from Company Funds in One Year... Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

Embezzled Funds Invested in 'Cryptocurrency' and 'Stocks'
Company Faces Operational Difficulties, Effectively 'Bankrupt'

A, the head of the management support team at a medical device manufacturing company in Daegu, embezzled 4 billion won of company funds over a period of 1 year and 2 months. It was revealed that he used the embezzled money for stock and cryptocurrency investments.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Culture Young Intern Reporter] A man in his 30s was sentenced to prison for embezzling 4 billion won of company funds over a period of 1 year and 2 months for personal use.

The Daegu District Court Criminal Division 11 (Chief Judge Sang-oh Lee) announced on the 11th that Mr. A, who was indicted on charges of embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes for arbitrarily using company funds, was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

The court stated, "The defendant admitted to the crime, showed remorse, and returned part of the embezzled amount, so the actual damage is estimated to be about 2.2 billion won, but the nature of the crime is serious. The victim company struggled with operations until early last year and hoped to recover after receiving about 1.6 billion won in funding from a U.S. company in March of the same year amid the pandemic situation, but it appears to have effectively gone bankrupt due to this crime."

Mr. A is accused of arbitrarily transferring 30 million won from the account under the name of the medical device manufacturing company where he worked to his wife's account on March 25 last year, and embezzling a total of about 4 billion won in 57 instances over about a year until May this year.

Investigations revealed that the embezzled funds were mainly used to repay personal debts or invested in stocks and virtual currencies.

Mr. A, as the head of the management support team, was responsible for operating and executing company funds such as employee salary payments, managed the company's official digital certificate alone, and freely used the company account, which led him to decide to commit the crime.

He then reported false documents to the company representative and meticulously planned the crime by diverting part of the embezzled money to an account under the name of a business run by his wife, who is the representative.

Additionally, each embezzlement ranged from as little as 500,000 won to as much as 400 million won. When the company funds were depleted, he judged that he could no longer hide the crime and reportedly informed the company of his wrongdoing.

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