South Korean Bank Employee Embezzles 10 Billion Korean Won for Cryptocurrency Trading Resulting in Over 50 Losses
According to South Korean media News1 and Hanguk Kyungjae, a Yuil Bank employee suspected of embezzling around 10 billion Korean won since the beginning of this year has surrendered to the police, stating that the funds were invested in cryptocurrency and incurred a loss of over fifty percent.
The Western Police Department of Korea recently revealed that the loan monitoring department of Yuil Bank detected abnormal signs during the monitoring system of the loan process and requested the employee to explain. The employee, in his thirties, voluntarily went to the police station on the 10th and confessed to the details of the crime. He worked at a branch of Yuil Bank and began embezzling loan funds through forged loan applications, deposit-related documents, and other means since the beginning of the year, with the embezzled funds amounting to around 10 billion Korean won (approximately $7.25 million).
During the investigation, he admitted to investing the embezzled funds in cryptocurrency, and due to investment failure, approximately 6 billion Korean won (approximately $4.35 million) has been lost.
Yuil Bank plans to file a claim against the employee and will further strengthen internal audit and monitoring process checks.
A spokesperson for Yuil Bank stated: “Through a thorough investigation, we will identify the loopholes in the loan execution process to prevent similar incidents from happening again. We will also impose strict penalties on the involved employees and enhance the internal control awareness of all employees.”
South Korea has always had a strong culture of cryptocurrency trading. Previously, statistics showed that the trading volume of the top five cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea was close to surpassing the stock market.
However, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Korea, Korean cryptocurrency investors are still mostly individual and small investors, with up to 4.55 million people classified as small investors, holding only below $734 in cryptocurrency assets.
