Fishermen Defend Suhyup Employee Under Embezzlement Investigation: "It's Not Embezzlement"... What Happened?

The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (Suhyup) is currently conducting an audit since the 7th regarding allegations of embezzlement by an employee of the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative, while fishermen have unusually voiced support for the employee, insisting "this is not embezzlement." The employee under audit is also protesting their innocence.

According to Suhyup on the 8th, the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative conducted a special audit from the 4th to the 14th of last month after receiving a tip that Manager A had been receiving crane operation fees into a personal bank account during the auction. The special audit confirmed that the fees were managed through a personal account, and Suhyup requested an audit from the central federation, which is currently underway.

The crane operation fees in question are collected from fishermen belonging to the Gangjin County Seaweed Producers Association, who pay 1,000 KRW per net (120 kg) as a management fee for crane usage. The total cost, reaching up to 13 million KRW per season, is spent on crane maintenance and fuel, snacks and meals for fishermen, various sponsorships, and expenses for family events.

The Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative considered this fee as public funds and viewed the receipt of these fees into Manager A’s personal account as embezzlement.

In response, the fishermen held a countermeasure meeting on March 12 and sent a petition to the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative stating that "the crane fees belong entirely to the fishermen and have nothing to do with the cooperative’s profits."

The fishermen said, "The crane fee account was opened in 2020 with the consent of the seaweed farming fishermen and has been used for snacks, meals, crane maintenance, etc., thereby reducing the cooperative’s expenses. Furthermore, we contribute more to the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative’s profit-making business than any other association or organization."

They continued, "Because of our efforts, the budget has been reduced by covering expenses that should have been spent on fishermen through the cooperative’s expenditures. We do not know if there are internal issues within the cooperative, but we strongly regret the targeted audit against a hardworking employee and the coercion and intimidation of the seaweed farming association for not cooperating with the audit."

They added, "The crane fee account has nothing to do with the cooperative’s profits, and we strongly request that the cooperative refrain from any interference in our association’s affairs going forward."

Manager A also stated that since there was consent from the fishermen and the funds were not the cooperative’s but the fishermen’s, used for fuel and maintenance, they managed the money through a personal account without much thought.

However, the internal audit concluded that even if the fees are unrelated to the cooperative’s profits, managing them through a personal account of a cooperative employee could be problematic. Therefore, with the unanimous consent of all seaweed farming fishermen, the account was reopened under the association’s name.

The consent form specifies that "the distribution business manager of the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative is authorized to manage the account autonomously."

Regarding this audit, Manager A claims it is a targeted audit against them. One of the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative employees filed a complaint with the Ministry of Employment and Labor about unpaid annual leave and absence allowances, and the cooperative suspected Manager A as the complainant.

In response, the Gangjin County Fisheries Cooperative stated, "Since the suspicion of embezzlement of labor costs was not sufficiently clarified, we had no choice but to request an audit from the central federation. Separately, we also plan to request a police investigation into the embezzlement of public funds."

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