BTS Jungkook Hat 'Secondhand Sale' Former Foreign Ministry Employee Fined 1 Million Won

Charged with Embezzlement of Misappropriated Property... Fine of 1 Million Won

A former Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee, Mr. A, who attempted to sell a hat left behind by Jungkook (26), a member of the group BTS, on a secondhand trading site, was fined.

According to the legal community on the 3rd, Judge Park So-jung of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 2 issued a summary order imposing a fine of 1 million KRW on Mr. A, a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs passport department employee, who was summarily indicted on charges of embezzlement on the 28th of last month.

In October of last year, Mr. A posted a listing on a secondhand trading site offering to sell a hat left behind by Jungkook, who had visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apply for a passport, for 10 million KRW.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He introduced the hat as "an item that BTS Jungkook personally wore and cannot be obtained even by paying money." He also attached his Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee ID to the post.

He further claimed, "BTS secretly visited the passport department to apply for passports and left this hat in the waiting area," and "After reporting it as lost property, no calls or visits were made to claim it for six months, so the finder (seller) acquired ownership."

However, there was no lost property report related to the hat, and when the police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs began investigating the case and the post caused controversy, Mr. A deleted the post and turned himself in to the police. He also stated that he had resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A, a former employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted a secondhand trade listing for BTS Jungkook on a secondhand trading site.
[Photo source=Online community capture]

The police booked Mr. A on charges of embezzlement of lost property, which applies when someone takes an item lost by another person without reporting it. They also considered changing the charge to embezzlement in the course of duty, which applies when someone embezzles property they were responsible for due to work reasons, but after legal review, only the 'personal' embezzlement charge was applied.

The prosecution, which received the case, filed a summary indictment with a fine of 1 million KRW after deliberation by the Prosecutors' Citizen Committee.

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