Apartment Accountant Caught in Widespread 44 Billion Won Embezzlement Scandal... Case Dismissed Five Years Ago

[Anchor]

A court has sentenced an apartment accountant in Gwangju to eight years in prison in the first trial on suspicions of embezzling some 44 billion won. However, it has been confirmed that concrete circumstances arousing suspicion of the accountant's embezzlement were already delivered to the police five years ago, but the charges were not uncovered in the investigation at the time.

This is a report by Yang Hyu-chang from KBC.

[Reporter]

Back in 2020, Person A served as an apartment representative and auditor.

While reviewing income and expenditure data at the time, Person A discovered a discrepancy of about 100 million won between the ledger and the actual bank account.

[Person A / Former Apartment Representative and Auditor in 2020: It says 180 million won or so, but there is only 71 million won. They made two different total balance trial sheets. So that is a 'double ledger.' One copy is for deception, and one copy is set right.]

Suspecting whether the money had been properly disbursed, Person A personally verified through the bank that the stamps on the utility bill receipts had been forged.

Person A even obtained a confirmation letter from the accountant at the time admitting to forging the bank stamps.

Based on such materials, Person A filed a complaint against the accountant with the police, but claims that the police at the time told them to withdraw the existing complaint and file it against the apartment management office director instead of the accountant.

[Person A / Former Apartment Representative and Auditor in 2020: Someone who calls themselves a democratic police officer conducts no investigation and oppressively tells you to write what they dictate, is that a democratic police officer? I was harassed so much that I wrote the withdrawal of the complaint just as they dictated.]

Although the investigation was reopened following Person A's objection, all charges including the accountant's embezzlement were dismissed without forwarding.

Three years after the decision not to forward the case, the accountant was caught fleeing with cash from the apartment management fees, and ultimately received an eight-year prison sentence in the recent first trial.

In addition, the newly formed apartment resident representative council has also filed an additional complaint, stating that there are circumstances pointing to a 44 billion won embezzlement.

Since concrete circumstances raising suspicion of embezzlement were already delivered to the police five years ago, criticism seems inevitable that the damage could have been mitigated if the investigation at the time had been properly conducted.

(Video by: Chang Chang-gun from KBC)

Yang Hyu-chang from KBC
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.