An Osstem Implant employee, who is accused of embezzling 198 billion won of company money, is being sent to the Gangseo Police Station in Seoul on the morning of the 6th. The police seized and searched the four-story multi-family house in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, where Lee resided from 8 p.m. the previous day, but found and arrested Lee at around 9:10 p.m. News 1
A 45-year-old Osstem Implant financial management team leader, who is accused of embezzling a large amount of company money, was arrested on the 8th, and attention is focused on where he spent the embezzlement amount of close to 200 billion won and where he hid the unrecovered amount. Police believe that Lee invested in stocks with the embezzled money and suffered significant losses.
According to the police on the 9th, it is known that Lee stole 198 billion won of company money eight times from March to October last year, and used this money to purchase stocks. Even before Lee bought 3.92 million shares of Dongjin Semicam worth 143 billion won in October last year, he embezzled 55 billion won and invested most of it in stocks.
Lee embezzled 10 billion won twice in March of last year and returned it to his company account. Police believe that he returned the principal following making a profit from the stock sale. Since then, Mr. Lee stole 45 billion won five times to buy stocks, but it is understood that he suffered a huge loss.
Investigative authorities believe that Mr. Lee embezzled 143 billion won at once to make up for the accumulated loss and started to purchase Dongjin Semichem shares. However, due to the decline in the stock price, it sold a total of 3.36 million shares in November and December at a loss of KRW 111.2 billion. Even if the police confiscated the entire 25.2 billion won from Lee’s stock account as the sale price of the remaining shares of Dongjin Semichem, it means that it has suffered a loss of more than 6 billion won.
Police believe that Lee used his stock to buy gold bars and real estate when it became difficult to recover the embezzlement money due to a series of investment losses. Last month, Lee spent 68 billion won to purchase 851 1 kg gold bars. 497 gold bars were confiscated from the hiding place in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, where Lee was caught on the 5th of this month, while the remaining 354 are being searched by the police. Lee also distributed 10 billion won remittance from his stock account to his and his wife’s accounts between October and December of last year.
It was also revealed that when Osstem Implant filed a complaint with the police on the 31st of last month for embezzlement, the amount of the embezzlement was stated as low as 143 billion won. Three days later, the company announced the embezzlement on the stock market and revealed the amount of embezzlement to be 188 billion won. A police official said, “It is unlikely that the Osstem Implant side calculated it by deliberately lowering it.” He said, “We calculated the amount from the account as embezzlement and calculated it as 198 billion won.”
The allegation that the company’s management intervened in Mr. Lee’s embezzlement also came under investigation. The police distributed the case to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in which a civic group, the People’s Livelihood Countermeasures Committee, filed a complaint once morest Chairman Choi Gyu-ok and CEO Eom Tae-gwan for embezzlement and violation of the Capital Market Act (market price adjustment). The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is said to be considering whether to directly investigate the case or send it down to the Gangseo Police Station. Osstem Implant reiterated its position on the same day, saying, “There was no intervention or instruction from the chairman.”
Kim Do-hyung reporter [email protected]
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