Hundreds of Millions of Won in Apartment Maintenance Fees Embezzled... Accounting Staff's Assets Frozen

Gwangsan-gu Apartment Accountant Embezzles Maintenance Fees for 10 Years
Police Freeze 85 Million Won in Assets
Residents' Council Reports "3.9 Billion Won Transferred," Requests Further Investigation

Approximately 80 million won in funds have been frozen from an accounting staff member who embezzled hundreds of millions of won in maintenance fees from an apartment complex in Gwangju.

Gwangsan Police Station in Gwangju.

On April 22, Gwangsan Police Station in Gwangju announced that it had obtained a court order to preserve 85 million won of assets belonging to A (48), who was indicted and detained on charges of occupational embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. Asset preservation is a procedure that freezes assets suspected to be criminal proceeds to prevent their disposal before a conviction is finalized.

The frozen assets include 7.8 million won in cash found in A's possession at the time of arrest, as well as security deposits for residences in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and Gwangju.

A is accused of personally embezzling hundreds of millions of won, including maintenance fees and long-term repair reserves, while working as an accountant for an apartment complex of 1,500 households in Gwangsan-gu from 2016 until recently. After committing the crime, A went into hiding but was apprehended in Bucheon.

The apartment residents' representative council reported, based on its own investigation, that the amount A transferred to personal accounts reached 3.9 billion won, and requested further investigation by the police. The police confirmed that a significant portion of this amount was used for apartment operations, such as paying utility bills, and the amount of embezzlement identified so far is about 500 million won.

The police stated that, despite tracing A's concealed funds, most of the assets except for the 85 million won have already been used for debt repayment and are difficult to recover. The investigation into the exact scale of the embezzlement and the use of the funds is ongoing.