A Woori Bank employee charged with embezzling 60 billion won worth of company money was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a fine of 32.3 billion won in the first trial.
On the 30th, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Settlement Section 24 (Chief Judge Jo Yong-rae) was indicted on charges of embezzlement and overseas property flight under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes to a former Mo (43, male) and younger brother (41, male) of Woori Bank employees. They were sentenced to 13 years in prison and 10 years in prison, respectively.
A fine of 32.38 billion won was also ordered.
Jeon, who worked at the corporate improvement department of Woori Bank's headquarters, was indicted in May on charges of stealing about 61.4 billion won from the company from October 2012 to June 2018 and using it to trade stock index options.
There are also charges of forging documents to provide a basis for withdrawing money in the process, and conspiring with his brother to divert some of the embezzlement money to an overseas offshore company account.
On the 22nd, before the sentencing, the prosecution additionally confirmed the amount of embezzlement worth 9.32 billion won and applied for a change of the indictment, but the court rejected it, saying "the method of the crime is different or not specified."
Prosecutors also requested the resumption of pleadings, saying, "If the sentence is decided as it is, in the appeals court, the money donated by a third person cannot be collected and the amount of damage cannot be recovered."
The court, however, did not accept the prosecution's argument.
Prosecutors found that the former brothers stole a total of 18.9 billion won from 24 people, including his parents and acquaintances.
Excluding the 31.8 billion won that the Jeon brothers lost due to an investment failure, about half of the 70.7 billion won the prosecution confirmed so far was found.
(Photo = Yonhap News)