Employees of Saemaeul Geumgo Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling 4 Billion Won

Former and current employees of the National Credit Union Federation of Korea (Saemaeul Geumgo) who were arrested and indicted for embezzling approximately 4 billion KRW in project financing (PF) loan fees have been sentenced to prison terms.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 22nd, the Criminal Division 11 of the Seoul Eastern District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Byung-chul) sentenced Park Mo (38), former deputy manager in charge of credit operations at the National Credit Union Federation, to 7 years in prison; No Mo (42), former credit team leader at Branch A, to 5 years in prison; and Oh Mo (43), credit team leader at Branch B, to 2 years in prison, ordering his immediate detention in court.

They were indicted on charges of lowering the interest rates and loan handling fees received by the loan syndicate during the Saemaeul Geumgo PF loan process from December 2021 to September last year, and pocketing the difference of 3,969.4 million KRW under the pretext of consulting fees.

Each of them established consulting firms under their wives' names to embezzle the fees. Park proposed the crime to No and Oh, who were handling the loan syndicate tasks at their respective branches, and managed the money. Investigations revealed that the embezzled funds were used to purchase an apartment worth approximately 1.7 billion KRW and a camping car worth 150 million KRW.

The court stated, "This act disregards the fundamental duties of employees belonging to financial institutions and pursues personal gain, making the culpability not light," and considered the large amount of damage and the significant deterioration of social trust in Saemaeul Geumgo.

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