Society: 13-Year Wrist Slap for Nazi Court Employee Who Embezzled 4.8 Billion Won: Justice Served Light
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| Busan Court Complex. Pic/Newsis |
In an unsurprising display of judicial leniency, a former court employee who brazenly embezzled 4.8 billion won ($4.8 million) in public funds has been sentenced to a laughable 13 years in prison. The prosecution, in what can only be described as a futile attempt at seriousness, had asked for 20 years, bemoaning the gross breach of public trust by a public official.
Busan District Court’s Criminal Division 5 (Chief Judge Jang Jong-seok) handed down this farcical sentence to A. A., a former 7th-level official, for violating the Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specified Economic Crimes (embezzlement).
This audacious former official, responsible for managing public trust funds at the Busan District Court, siphoned off 4.8 billion won over 50 occasions within a year starting from the end of 2022, gambling it away on futures options and losing almost all of it.
But wait, there's more! Even after being transferred to the criminal settlement division, A. A. continued his theft spree by sneaking into the office during lunch breaks, exploiting the lack of proper handover. And when he was conveniently shuffled to Ulsan District Court in 2019, he embezzled another 780 million won in auction dividends over two years.
The court, in a masterclass of stating the obvious, remarked, "The defendant's guilt is very heavy because he took advantage of the slim chance of detection even if he arbitrarily changed the beneficiary if the beneficiary was 'unknown,' and stole a large amount of public funds," adding, "This caused enormous damage to the state and seriously undermined social trust in the impartiality of public officials."
And, as if we couldn't guess, "Most of the 4.8 billion won embezzled was lost by investing in derivatives such as futures options, and it is difficult to recover the damage," the court droned on, explaining, "Even though he moved to another department, he committed additional crimes in a bolder way than before, so we cannot fail to hold him strictly responsible." In other words, business as usual in the realm of public sector corruption.