[Is Saemaeul Geumgo Okay?] ② Customer Deposits and Loans 'Swallowed' Embezzlement Incidents Repeated

Embezzlement, Breach of Trust, and Fraud Cases Persist Nationwide in Saemaeul Geumgo
Incidents

Saemaeul Geumgo, which caused a stir last year due to an embezzlement case involving 4 billion KRW, has experienced four embezzlement incidents by June of this year. Simply put, this means that embezzlement incidents have occurred approximately once every month and a half this year as well.

On the 13th, Asia Economy analyzed data obtained through the office of Hong Seong-guk, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's records on 'Saemaeul Geumgo illegal loans and embezzlement sanctions' over the past seven years. From 2017 to June of this year, Saemaeul Geumgo has seen incidents involving embezzlement, breach of trust, fraud, and bribery amounting to over 64 billion KRW. The types of incidents varied, ranging from employees who tampered with deposits to those who embezzled loan funds or petty cash.

The most frequent incidents were 'embezzlement,' with a total of 66 cases from 2017 to June this year, amounting to 38.5 billion KRW. More than half of the embezzlement cases involved misappropriation of deposits or loan funds. There were 21 cases of embezzlement of customer deposits or savings, and 13 cases involved embezzlement of loan funds. Other cases included embezzlement of petty cash or budgets, unauthorized use of the credit union’s funds, and improper receipt of retirement benefits.

Breach of trust accounted for 11 cases, with related amounts totaling 10.3 billion KRW. Additionally, there were 8 cases of 'fraud,' including unsecured loans and overvaluation of movable collateral, involving 14.4 billion KRW. Furthermore, there were 5 cases of bribery related to loans, amounting to approximately 770 million KRW. Most of the Saemaeul Geumgo employees involved in these incidents faced disciplinary dismissal. Some employees even received prison sentences of up to 10 years.

In particular, this year, four embezzlement incidents were reported, including embezzlement of deposits, petty cash, and failure to deposit loan repayments, with the total amount involved around 166 million KRW. Most employees involved were subjected to disciplinary dismissal.

The problem is that despite the continuous occurrence of such incidents, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, responsible for managing and supervising Saemaeul Geumgo, had only seven personnel as of last year. Although this number increased by three to ten this year, the number of financial experts dispatched from the Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service, and Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation remains at about three, similar to previous years. Because of this, there have been ongoing calls for financial authorities to supervise Saemaeul Geumgo, just like other mutual financial institutions such as credit unions, NongHyup, and SuHyup.

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