Amorepacific employees have fun with company's money

Three employees of Amorepacific reportedly siphoned off 3 billion won ($2.35 million) of company money, used it to gamble and buy stock and virtual assets, and were eventually caught.

People enter Amorepacific's headquarters in Yongsan District, central Seoul. [NEWS1]

Three employees of Amorepacific reportedly siphoned off 3 billion won ($2.35 million) of company money, used it to gamble and buy stock and virtual assets, and were eventually caught.

The company disciplined them but didn't go to the police. Most of the money has been returned.

The employees, working at Amorepacific’s sales team, allegedly siphoned off payments sent from their customers. They drafted fake documents such as tax invoices to cover their tracks.

Local media reported that around 3 billion won was embezzled by the three employees, but Amorepacific didn't confirm an exact amount.

However, the company said the embezzled amount was less than 5 percent of its capital, so it was not obliged to make a regulatory filing. The Korea Exchange suspends stock trading and reassesses the listing qualifications of a company when embezzlement exceeds the 5 percent threshold.

The embezzlement was found during a company audit and most of the money has been returned.

Amorepacific's disciplinary committee penalized the employees, although the company didn’t disclose details. The company didn’t report the case to the police.

The three employees used the money for illegal gambling and invested in stocks and virtual assets.

It was the latest embezzlement case at a major company since late last year.

Last December, Osstem Implant filed a criminal complaint against one of its employees for allegedly embezzling 221.5 billion won, which would be the largest amount ever embezzled from a listed Korean company. The employee also used part of the money to invest in stock.

A 35-year-old employee from Keyang Electrical Machinery was arrested in March for allegedly embezzling 24.5 billion won, also using the money to invest in stock and cryptocurrency.

On May 13, an employee of cosmetics company Clio was arrested for embezzling 1.89 billion won. At Woori Bank, an employee was arrested in April for having allegedly embezzled more than 60 billion won.

Following the news, shares of Amorepacific fell 3.09 percent on Tuesday to 157,000 won.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]