Corporate Card Used for 900 Million Won 'Gift Certificate Laundering'... KAIST Employee Referred to Prosecution in Custody

Purchased Gift Certificates and Cashed Out for Three Years
Paid Off Card Bills with a Revolving Scheme

An employee of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who embezzled school funds by purchasing products worth hundreds of millions of won with a corporate card and then converting them into cash, has been handed over to the prosecution under detention.

According to Yonhap News Agency on April 1, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit of the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency referred a KAIST employee in his 30s, identified as Mr. A, to the prosecution under detention on charges of occupational breach of trust and fraud.

Mr. A was a staff member responsible for budget execution in one of the departments. From 2022 to last year, over a period of about three years, he allegedly purchased gift certificates worth approximately 900 million won using a corporate card, resold them, and converted them into cash. He used a so-called 'gift certificate laundering' scheme to use school funds for personal purposes.

According to the investigation, Mr. A managed the funds in a "revolving" manner by using the cash obtained in this way to pay off the following month's corporate card bill.

Previously, in September last year, KAIST confirmed circumstances of embezzlement by the employee through an internal audit and requested a police investigation.

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