According to Korean media News1 and Hanguk Kyungjae, a Woori Bank employee suspected of embezzling approximately 10 billion won since the beginning of this year has surrendered to the police, saying that his funds were invested in cryptocurrency and suffered a loss of more than 50%.

Yuri Bank employee turns himself in

South Korea's Gimhae West Police Station recently revealed that Woori Bank's loan monitoring department discovered abnormal signs in the loan process in the monitoring system and asked the employee to explain.

The 30-year-old Woori Bank employee voluntarily surrendered to the police station on the 10th and confessed the details of the crime. He worked at a Woori Bank branch and had misappropriated loan funds since the beginning of the year by forging loan applications and deposit-related documents. The scale of misappropriated funds reached approximately 10 billion won (approximately US$7.25 million).

During the investigation, he admitted that he invested the embezzled funds in cryptocurrency and had lost approximately 6 billion won (approximately $4.35 million) due to failed investments.

Woori Bank plans to claim compensation

Woori Bank plans to file a claim against the employee and will further strengthen inspections of its internal audit and accounting control processes.

A source from Woori Bank said:

We will conduct thorough investigations to identify loopholes in the loan execution process to prevent similar incidents from happening again. At the same time, the employees involved will be severely punished and the internal control awareness of all employees will be strengthened.

South Korea has always had a strong culture of currency speculation. According to previous statistics, the trading volume of the top five cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea has even surpassed the stock trading market.

(Stock trading is not as good as currency trading, and South Korea’s cryptocurrency trading volume is close to that of the stock trading market)

However, according to statistics from the Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC), Korean crypto investors are still dominated by retail investors and small investors. As many as 4.55 million people are small investors and only hold cryptocurrencies below US$734.

(Don’t want to lose to South Korea! South Korea Financial Commission: There are as many as 6.45 million crypto asset users, and 70% of investments are less than US$800)

This article, Bank of Korea employees misappropriated 10 billion won to speculate in currencies and have lost more than 50%. It first appeared on Lian News ABMedia.