Police raided the headquarters of Woori Bank, one of South Korea’s largest commercial banks, on Monday as one of the bank’s employees is suspected of embezzling more than 60 billion won (US$47 million).
Police confiscated computers and documents of the employee during the four-hour raid, officials said.
According to the bank, the employee, who has worked at Woori Bank for more than 10 years, took out a total of 61.45 billion won through three withdrawals, in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Most of the stolen money was from a 57.8-billion won contract deposit that Woori Bank has to return to an Iranian company in connection with a failed acquisition deal.
The bank has filed a criminal complaint against the employee. The suspect turned himself to authorities last Wednesday.
The brother of the employee was also detained after it was learned that some of the funds were transferred to his business.
The brother reportedly suffered financial losses worth some 8 billion won after pursuing a golf resort development project in New Zealand. A formal arrest warrant has also been sought for the brother.
Source: Yonhap News Agency