Homeless Man Denied Access to $94,000 Frozen Account Dies
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
A homeless man, who was denied access to more than 100 million won he had saved in a bank account since 1993, died of cancer last week.
The man couldn't withdraw the 128 million won ($94,000) in his account because he didn't know his own name.
According to Gwangju police and Gwangju Bank, the man, who didn't have a registered name or ID number, died of pancreatic cancer in a hospital on April 28.
Called Mr. Na by those who knew him, he collected scrap iron and other junk in the daytime and slept on the street at night. Friends said Na had told them he was born on May 23, 1953, but didn't know his real name.
According to the bank, he opened an account under an alias in early 1993. The bank said he continued saving money until recently although his account has been frozen since August 1993, when the real-name account system, introduced by former President Kim Young-sam, took effect.
The man never changed the alias on the bank account to his real name because he had not registered one. The real-name-based system bans people from withdrawing money saved in an account opened without a registered name.
He had recently settled into a converted container unit offered by local government in 2007 but soon fell sick.
``When we brought him into a shelter recently, his cancer was already out-of-control,'' a ward officer said.
Thanks to the local government, the process of registering his name had been underway at a local court, but he died before the process could be completed.
A court will now decide what happens to the man's money.
``A local court will make a decision. In this case, the money is very likely to be put into the state coffers,'' the bank official said.