Tag: theft

You have to hand it to the Kim regime, if there is an illegal way to make money they will find it:

North Korean hackers stole about 100 million Korean won, or $88,000, worth of bitcoin from South Korean exchanges every month from 2013 to 2015, Yonhap News Agency reports, citing Radio Free Asia.

“Cyber criminals have turned to bitcoin for money as it is very difficult to track them down,” Choi Sang-myong, a senior official at South Korea’s cybersecurity firm Hauri, told Free Asia Radio, according to Yonhap. “Since tracking down the culprits is very difficult, North Korea had jumped on the bandwagon of bitcoin extortion since around 2012.”  [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing to me that one employee would have access to this much money to embezzle:

A major European conglomerate says one of its employees in South Korea has gone missing — along with $100 million.

Power and robotics firm ABB (ABB) announced Wednesday that it has “uncovered a sophisticated criminal scheme” at its South Korean unit. It only noticed the huge sums had been stolen after the employee of the subsidiary disappeared about two weeks ago.

The employee, who ABB has not identified, is suspected of forging documents and working with individuals outside the company to steal the money, according to ABB and South Korean police.

A police spokesman said that the suspect is believed to have fled to Hong Kong and that they are working with Interpol to bring him back to South Korea. Interpol declined to comment on the investigation.

The embezzlement and misappropriation of funds is limited to South Korea, where ABB employs about 800 staff, the company said. Other people could still come under investigation.  [CNN via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but the guy behind the theft was the person responsible for ensuring legal and ethical integrity:

The executive, named by a source in South Korea as Oh Myeong-se, was treasurer and one of two integrity ombudsmen for ABB Korea – to whom staff were supposed to report any ethical concerns – according to an online company magazine available on ABB’s Korean website.

He was also the head of compliance at ABB in Korea until 2010, said a source familiar with the investigation, a role that carries responsibility for maintaining legal and ethical integrity.

The executive is suspected of forging documents and colluding with third parties to steal funds, ABB said, estimating it would take a pre-tax charge of about $100 million for the affair, which analysts said raised concerns about its corporate oversight. [Reuters]

It will be interesting to see who else is tied to this crime because I would be surprised if this guy was able to embezzle and move this much money all on his own.

It looks like Paris has their own example of apparent police misconduct being used as an excuse by thugs to riot and rob:

A group of South Korean tourists in Paris were robbed of their train tickets and one passport in what appeared to be a case linked to the recent unrest over alleged police brutality, officials said Sunday.

Some 40 Korean tourists were on a bus to their hotel around 9 p.m. Saturday (local time) when three or four black men boarded the bus and fled with the tourists’ Eurostar tickets and the passport of the group’s Korean tour guide, according to officials at the South Korean Embassy in Paris.

The men shouted and brandished what appeared to be glass bottles and struck some of the tourists on their heads. The group included children and senior citizens.

An official at the embassy urged caution in the suburbs north of Paris where the hotel is located, citing safety concerns. More than 2,000 protesters gathered in the nearby suburb of Bobigny the same day to express support for a 22-year-old black man who was alleged raped and subjected to unnecessary violence by police officers during his arrest on Feb. 2.  [Yonhap]

Here is a Arirang News report about the attack:

I am glad the Korean authorities caught these two because I can’t stand people who steal or leave graffiti everywhere:

Police have arrested two Russians for allegedly vandalizing subway cars in Daegu and stealing clothes from department stores in Seoul and Busan.

Daegu Dongbu Police Station said on Monday that the two men, 22 and 20, allegedly painted the word “ONAS” — meaning “we” in Russian — on two subway cars at a depot in the city’s Dong-gu district around 1:40 a.m. on Oct. 16.

A Daegu department store employee reported the men to police.

After analyzing CCTV footage, police discovered that the graffiti suspects were wanted by Busan Jungbu Police Station on a charge of stealing clothes worth 7.5 million won ($6,620) from department stores in Seoul and Busan on Oct. 11 and 12, respectively.

According to Daegu police, the Russians stole the clothes and vandalized the subway cars “for fun.” [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The stupid things drunk people do:

Rescuers have removed an inebriated woman from a claw crane game for dolls after she crawled into the game machine’s exit following frustration over her failure to get any dolls from it, firefighters said Tuesday.

The woman, 20, got herself confined inside the machine in the city of Incheon, west of Seoul, around 4:00 a.m. on Monday before being rescued. Rescuers, who were mobilized to the scene after receiving a tip from one of her acquaintances, cut through the machine’s cabinet with a motor drill.

After failing to pick up a doll in several attempts, she managed to enter the machine through its opening with a length and width of just 30 centimeters, but was unable to get back out, they said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I always wondered if the various tombs in South Korea still had cultural relics left in them and apparently some of them still do:

Authorities said Tuesday that they had rounded up four people who illegally excavated two ancient burial sites in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang.

According to the Gyeongsan Police Precinct, those arrested include a 65-year-old antique dealer surnamed Park, who is alleged to have stolen artifacts from the two graves. They are questioning three others employed by Park for the project.

“We suspect that they began digging near the burial sites in January last year to make a hole large enough for a man to crawl in,” said a police officer. “They dug the hole gradually at night over two months.”

Police added that the burial mounds were surrounded by dense woods before being recently refurbished.

Investigators confiscated 38 artifacts from the graves, including golden earrings, silver swords, crowns and belts, though they believe the suspects made away with more artifacts.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

I wonder how USFK would treat a similar case of theft by a civilian in a situation like this?:

On March 6, a large sum of cash was stolen from a slot machine room at the Navy’s largest base in Asia.

This wasn’t the first time money had gone missing from a Navy entertainment facility in Japan. In 2010, $67,000 went missing from a Naval Air Facility Atsugi club. Only a few civilians had access to the cash, but no one was ever arrested.

Navy officials in Japan say that while they can make it hard to steal and even harder to go unidentified, a determined thief is going to have opportunities at entertainment facilities, which are primarily operated by civilians who, unlike servicemembers, do not fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

When crime prevention among civilians fails, the question then becomes whether federal officials will prosecute them. Unless the crime is violent or particularly noteworthy, the answer is probably not.

When criminal suspects fall under the UCMJ, custody and prosecution become straightforward legal matters. If the suspect is a civilian, custody may become subject to international accords and possibly extradition agreements, which can take months or years to find their way through the courts.

Sources familiar with the March theft at Yokosuka told Stars and Stripes that a suspect is a third-country national admitted to Japan. If the suspect is still in Japan and off-base, the U.S. has no jurisdiction to make the arrest and would need assistance from Japanese authorities.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but if the military lacks legal jurisdiction than why was this person allowed on base in the first place?

Anyway speaking of slot machine scams, does anyone remember this case of the Korean woman who made $1.2 million signing people on to post to gamble on Yongsan Garrison?  As far as I can tell nothing happened to her either other than losing pass privileges.

This guy is claiming he was just being multicultural:

A man who was caught allegedly robbing a house while wearing women’s panties has been identified and apprehended, Seoul police said Monday.

The incident occurred some three months ago. The 63-year-old man, identified only as Hwang, was allegedly ransacking a house when the owner walked in. Hwang escaped, but not before getting his pants and panties caught on the window as he was jumping out.

Police took hair and fluid samples in the underwear to identify the man and arrested him last Wednesday.

The man claimed he wore the women’s underwear because of a traditional superstition, Gangseo-gu district police said.  [Korea Times]