Lee Eun-hae Received 13 Million Won After Killing Husband... Not a Single Won Recovered

It has been revealed that Lee Eun-hae, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Gapyeong creek murder, received 13 million won in survivor's pensions following her husband's death, but not a single won has been recovered so far.

This fact was confirmed today (the 11th) through data obtained from the National Pension Service and other institutions by Representative Kim Kyo-heung of the Democratic Party of Korea, who serves on the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly.

It was found that after causing the death of her husband in 2019, Lee applied for a survivor's pension and received approximately 13 million won over 28 months, at 460,000 won per month.

Following the Supreme Court ruling in 2023, the National Pension Service revoked Lee's eligibility to receive the survivor's pension for intentionally causing her husband's death, but has not been able to recover the pensions paid out during that period.

The National Pension Service explained, "Since Lee, the person obligated to pay, has been incarcerated for a long time, no assets under her name have been identified, making recovery through seizure or compulsory execution difficult."

The National Pension Service pays pensions to the surviving family members when a person who meets certain requirements—such as a recipient of an old-age pension, a subscriber with a subscription period of 10 years or more, or a former subscriber—passes away.

However, survivor's pensions received by intentionally causing the death of a subscriber or former subscriber, or obtained through fraudulent means, must be fully recovered.

The problem is that over the past five years, cases of fraudulent receipt of survivor's pensions reached 34, amounting to 400 million won, but the amount actually recovered was only 230 million won, accounting for a mere 56.3% of the total.

In fact, there was a case where an individual faked the death of a spouse who left the country in 2001, fraudulently receiving about 96 million won in survivor's pensions over 22 years, only to be caught when the spouse returned to the country.

Representative Kim Kyo-heung emphasized, "The amount of fraudulent receipt of survivor's pensions has reached 400 million won over the past five years, and apart from this, there are even more cases of fraudulent receipt of national pensions through other methods such as concealing deaths," adding, "We must track down fraudulent recipients to the very end and recover all funds so that subscribers who faithfully pay their premiums do not suffer losses."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.