Gyeongnam Police Agency Arrests 'National Subsidy Thief'... Fraudulent Claims Exceeding 24.5 Billion Won

Individuals who fraudulently obtained national subsidies in Gyeongnam Province were caught by the police.

The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 22nd that it conducted a special crackdown on fraudulent receipt of national subsidies from June 19 to December 10, 2023.

Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency.
Photo by Lee Seryeong

According to the provincial police agency, 48 cases were detected over the past six months, resulting in the arrest of 191 people, with the amount of fraudulent subsidies reaching 24.52 billion KRW.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of arrests increased by 38%, the number of people arrested rose by 402%, and the amount of fraudulent subsidies increased by 2718%.

Performance of crackdown on fraudulent receipt of national treasury subsidies in Gyeongnam Province. [Data provided by Gyeongnam Police Agency]

The police arrested 30 individuals who submitted false proof documents claiming to have actually provided services related to the K-Non-face-to-face Voucher Platform project from 2021 to 2022, thereby embezzling 19.5 billion KRW in subsidies.

They also apprehended 12 people, including a project director of a county office, who fabricated false documents to claim 330 million KRW in subsidies by pretending that already developed products from 2016 to 2019 were newly developed.

Eight people, including a chairman who misused 60 million KRW in private school staff support subsidies received from the provincial education office in 2022, were also caught.

Five individuals who created false work plans despite never having worked and received employment incentive subsidies totaling about 130 million KRW were also caught by the police.

Status of arrests by type of crime detected in the 2023 special crackdown on fraudulent receipt of national treasury subsidies. [Data provided by Gyeongnam Police Agency]

In this crackdown, 81.7% of cases involved fraudulent applications to embezzle subsidies or repeated embezzlement.

Misuse of subsidies after legitimately applying and receiving them for other purposes accounted for 18.3%.

The provincial police agency plans to strengthen intelligence gathering by each station and cooperation among related departments even after the official crackdown period ends at the end of the year, considering that subsidies are operated diversely by sector and region throughout the year.

To encourage reporting of subsidy fraud, they will actively provide whistleblower rewards of up to 100 million KRW.

Chief Kim Byung-woo stated, “Subsidy fraud is a crime of deception against the public’s taxes,” adding, “We will continue to strictly crack down on subsidy fraud to prevent leakage of national and local finances and ensure economic justice.”

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