Police Also Investigate Possession of Nominee Accounts
Investigation Accelerates for Gangdong-gu Office and SH Officials
[Asia Economy Reporters Seongpil Jo and Sehee Jang] On the 28th, it was reported that the police have reapplied for a search warrant on financial accounts related to Kim Mo (47), a Grade 7 public official at Gangdong District Office, who was arrested on charges of embezzling 11.5 billion KRW of public funds. Previously, the police had applied for multiple search warrants on accounts to trace the flow of the embezzled funds, but some of these were dismissed, leading to this reapplication.
According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy, the Gangdong Police Station in Seoul is investigating the flow and usage of 7.7 billion KRW that Kim failed to repay after embezzlement. Most notably, they are tracking the whereabouts of the 7.7 billion KRW, which Kim stated in earlier investigations was used for stock investments. To do this, they deemed it necessary to examine all accounts owned by him and applied for multiple search warrants on these accounts. However, some were dismissed by the court, prompting a reapplication.
It is common for investigative agencies to have some of multiple applied-for search warrants on accounts dismissed by the court. When the scope of account tracking is set too broadly, the court often narrows the scope by filtering out unnecessary parts before issuing the warrant. A police official said, "It is one of the investigative techniques," adding, "Even if it takes time from reapplication to analysis, we will do our best."
The police plan to check for the existence of nominee accounts while analyzing the accounts secured through the issued warrants. If evidence is found that Kim used nominee accounts in the crime, charges of violating the Real Name Financial Transaction Act could be applied. A police official said, "We are at the stage of confirming the existence of nominee accounts," adding, "We cannot disclose specific details as the investigation is ongoing."
Kim, who worked in the Investment Attraction Division at Gangdong District Office, is accused of embezzling a total of 11.5 billion KRW in public funds over dozens of occasions from December 2019 to February last year, with up to 500 million KRW embezzled per day. It is reported that Kim sent an official letter to Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) instructing them to deposit funds into a district office business account he managed instead of the fund management account, which was not allowed to withdraw funds. At this time, Kim is said to have exploited the fact that the district office business 'Zero Pay account' was not detected by the district office accounting system.
Until the day before, the police summoned Gangdong District Office officials who were in the approval line at the time of the embezzlement and SH officials related to the embezzled funds as witnesses for questioning. It is reported that no witnesses have yet been converted into suspects.
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