A social worker who embezzled government nursing care benefits paid to patients in a nursing hospital and used them for cryptocurrency investments has been arrested.
On the 4th, the Yeonje Police Station in Busan announced that they had arrested and sent a man in his 30s, identified as Mr. A, on charges of theft and fraud.
Mr. A, who was a social worker at a nursing hospital in Yeonje-gu, is accused of stealing cash cards and bankbooks from 19 patients from January 2018 to last July and embezzling about 107.5 million won through approximately 700 transactions involving basic benefits and disaster relief funds.
According to the police, Mr. A targeted severely demented patients hospitalized in the nursing hospital who had no family or guardians.
The benefits typically paid to one patient ranged from 700,000 to 800,000 won, and it was revealed that Mr. A took all of it except for a portion used for hospital fees.
It was confirmed that Mr. A squandered most of the embezzled money by investing it in cryptocurrencies and other means.
The police reported the case to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and plan to expand the investigation, suspecting there may be similar cases.
A police official stated, "Mr. A took advantage of the fact that long-term hospitalized patients without guardians had no one to manage their nursing care benefits, committing the crime over a long period," adding, "Since the entities responsible for managing various welfare benefits are unclear and there is a shortage of management personnel, blind spots seem to have emerged."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
