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couple of American employees who worked at the US Embassy in Korea were caught sending so-called'fake bags' to the United States and were sentenced to prison.
They used the embassy's business computer to take orders online and sell counterfeit goods worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Reporter Kim Hye-young reports exclusively.
<Reporter>
This is the announcement of the US Department of Justice about Jin Leroy Thompson, former US embassy employee in Korea, and spouse Guo Zhao Chang.
It is supposed to have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of fake products and hundreds of millions of won worth of Korean money to the United States for two years and three months until December 2019 when working in Korea.
These couples sold mainly bags, which imitate the bag brands popular with American women.
Those who created online accounts in popular US open markets received orders through their accounts and then sent fake bags to conspirators' homes in Oregon, USA, and conspirators delivered bags to buyers across the country.
Thompson, who was in charge of the information program at the embassy, turned out to have been using the embassy's business computer to conduct sales.
It is not clear from the data whether the bags were made in Korea or procured from another country.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that those arrested by the US Department of State's Diplomatic Service were convicted on the 18th.
Thompson was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, his wife's chief was sentenced to eight months in house arrest, and a fine of 229,000 dollars and 260 million won in our money was also imposed.
When I asked the US embassy in Korea why he hadn't noticed the employee's illegal activity for more than two years, he said, "I have nothing to tell you."
(Video coverage: Kang Dong-cheol, Video editing: Park Ki-deok, CG: Seo Seung-hyun, Lee A-reum)