"Rare Coins Are Valuable"... Former Bank of Korea Employee Sentenced for Embezzling Coins

2 Years 6 Months Imprisonment and 1 Million Won Fine
Confiscation of 43 Million Won Earned from Selling Coins

A former Bank of Korea employee was sentenced to prison for embezzling rare coins and selling them on the market, earning tens of millions of won.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 7th, the Criminal Division 12 of Daejeon District Court (Presiding Judge Na Sang-hoon) sentenced A (61), a former employee of the Bank of Korea Daejeon Sejong·Chungnam Headquarters, who was indicted on charges of bribery and violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, to 2 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of 1 million won. Additionally, the court ordered the confiscation of approximately 43.31 million won.

B (47), a licensed real estate agent and currency collector who was also indicted, was found guilty of bribery and other charges and was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation.

The court stated, "Considering the nature of financial institutions, strict integrity obligations should be imposed on their executives and employees just like general public officials, so it is necessary to hold the defendant to correspondingly severe responsibility," and noted, "The defendant obtained economic benefits exceeding 40 million won excluding the initial investment, and even received sales proceeds while under audit for this case."

It added, "However, the sentencing decision took into account that the defendants have no prior convictions of the same kind, the actual damage to the bank was not significant, and they have family members to support."

In March of last year, while working in currency exchange at the Bank of Korea, A met B, who came to perform the so-called 'dwijipgi'?collecting coins only from specific years by exchanging bills for coins. A conspired with B after hearing from B that "selling rare coins can make money."

At B’s request, A violated the 'first-in, first-out' rule and allowed 240,000 100-won coins from 2018?2019, which were selling at a higher price at the time, to be issued before the 2017 coins.

The profit B earned from selling rare coins received from A amounted to about 180 million won. B gave about 55 million won to A’s share, and it was investigated that A kept about 43 million won after deducting the investment.

The Bank of Korea confirmed through an internal audit that, aside from 100-won coins from 2018?2019 distributed as gifts or souvenirs, there were no cases of coins being released externally through normal procedures at regional headquarters, and reported A to the police.

A was dismissed after the investigation began.

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