Korea Employment Information Service Employee Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Embezzling 280 Million Won from Employment Insurance Fund

40 Million Won Still Unrecovered
Kim Taeseon: "Restoring Public Trust Through Enhanced Transparency"

Korea Employment Information Service building. Korea Employment Information Service

An employee of the Korea Employment Information Service who embezzled 280 million won from the Employment Insurance Fund was recently sentenced to prison by the court, according to reports.

According to data received by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Taeseon, a member of the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee, from the Korea Employment Information Service, employee A transferred approximately 280 million won from the Employment Insurance Fund to their own account by manipulating firm banking data on August 26 and 27 of last year.

Afterwards, A turned themselves in, underwent police and prosecution investigations, and was indicted. In April of this year, the court sentenced A to one year and six months in prison for computer fraud. The appeal trial is currently ongoing.

Of the 280 million won embezzled by A, about 230 million won has been recovered through payment orders and seizure, and 9 million won was voluntarily repaid by A. For the remaining 40 million won, recovery procedures are underway, but the process has been delayed due to A’s poor financial situation. As a result of this incident, A was dismissed from the Korea Employment Information Service.

The Employment Insurance Fund is used to pay for essential benefits such as parental leave allowances and unemployment benefits. Excluding borrowed funds, the fund is already in deficit, raising ongoing concerns about depletion. This embezzlement incident, caused by poor management of the computer network, occurred amid these concerns.

Following the incident, the Korea Employment Information Service introduced a function in the employment insurance system that immediately notifies an administrator (team leader) in real time whenever someone accesses the system with a database administrator account or modifies firm banking data using such an account.

Additionally, the agency improved the operation of the firm banking system to enhance transparency and commissioned an internal control audit by a professional accounting firm to conduct a special review of work procedures.

Kim Taeseon stated, “It is a serious issue that an embezzlement incident occurred at the Korea Employment Information Service, which manages the computer network for the Employment Insurance Fund-the source of essential benefits such as unemployment and parental leave allowances for the public-due to poor management. The transparency and accountability of fund management must be strengthened to restore public trust.”