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| The logo of NongHyup is seen in this file photo. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
An employee at a regional NongHyup office in Gyeonggi Province was arrested Wednesday for allegedly embezzling 4 billion won ($3 million) from the office.
According to Gwangju Police in Gyeonggi Province, the worker is suspected of having transferred the corporate capital into a bank account of his accomplice multiple times since April. The regional NongHyup office is classified as a secondary financial group unlike NongHyup Bank, which is a first-tier financial firm.
The employee, who worked as a cashier, is suspected to have embezzled the money to offset his losses from gambling and cryptocurrency investment.
The financial office found the suspicious activity of the worker recently and reported the case to police Tuesday.
Financial circles are enhancing vigilance against such criminal acts, with employees of other financial firms making headlines after committing similar crimes in recent months.
Last week, an employee from KB Savings Bank was arrested for allegedly embezzling 9.4 billion won in corporate funds by forging documents. The worker was suspected of fabricating documents for six years between May 2015 and October 2021 to embezzle the money. More than 90 percent of the money was gambled away.
Early last month, a Woori Bank employee was also arrested for allegedly embezzling 61.4 billion won between 2012 and 2018, weakening the lender's credibility as the nation's fourth-largest commercial bank.
After the scandal erupted, a series of similar embezzlement crimes took place at other financial firms, which raised the need for them to enhance their internal inspection systems to prevent further embezzlement cases.
Bank industry officials, however, said it is realistically tough for each financial firm to catch every suspicious move of their employees.
"It is very tough for sales offices of any banks or financial firms to keep track of every single activity of their employees if they decide to fabricate documents on purpose," an official from a commercial lender said.
Financial firms have no choice but to enhance internal inspection systems and offer more education to employees to mitigate moral hazard risks, according to the official.
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