The Embezzled Money Belongs to Iranian Company
The police have arrested a Woori Bank employee for embezzling 61.4 billion won.
The bank has recently found in an internal audit that the employee, who handles corporate workouts, embezzled company money. It reported the case to the police on the evening of April 27.
The embezzled money was part of a down payment that Iranian home appliance company Entekhab paid the bank to acquire Daewoo Electronics. Woori Bank was the lead manager of the deal between 2010 and 2011. At the time, the bank selected Iran’s Entekhab as a preferred bidder for Daewoo Electronics, which was owned by Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO). The deal fell through due to differences over the sale price. The creditors of Daewoo Electronics confiscated the down payment paid by Entekhab, and Woori Bank managed the down payment in a separate account, but the employee stole part of it.
The problem is that the embezzled funds are the down payment that must be returned to Entekhab. The Iranian company and the Korean government are engaged in an investor-state dispute (ISD) over the return of the down payment.