The Gwangju Regional Employment and Labor Office Ikseon Branch announced on the 18th that it arrested a business owner and conspirators who had them falsely report unpaid wages, allowing them to embezzle 360 million won, of which more than 300 million won was taken.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, business owner A recruited people to partake in the crime with the intention of privately appropriating the construction funds and debts of the site he had built.
The government operates a system that provides advanced payments to cover unpaid wages when workers do not receive their wages due to the bankruptcy of corporations. The maximum bankruptcy payment is 21 million won, while the simplified advance payment is 10 million won for retirees and 7 million won for active employees.
A misused this system. He had personal contractor B recruit false workers and unjustly receive the simplified advance payments. B received 95 million won from the false workers and transferred 76 million won to A. A reportedly received a total of 160 million won from other conspirators as well.
This case was caught when a labor inspector found inconsistencies in the testimonies of A and the representative of the complainants while investigating the unpaid wage case. The workers revealed that they either did not know about the work or had worked at multiple business sites simultaneously.
Accordingly, the Gwangju Regional Labor Office Ikseon Branch obtained a financial account search warrant from the court and secured evidence suggesting that during the claimed period of unpaid wages, the workers stayed in another region and that advanced payments were sent back to A and B.
Jeon Hyun-cheol, the Ikseon Branch Head, said, "Crimes that misuse the simplified advance payment system require strict punishment," adding, "Along with criminal penalties, additional collection fees up to five times the amount unjustly received will be imposed for recovery."