SEOUL, The suspect of the country’s single largest embezzlement case that has engulfed a local medical equipment producer was formally detained on Saturday after a court approved his arrest warrant.
The Seoul Southern District Court issued the warrant for a 45-year-old employee of Osstem Implant Co., identified only by his surname Lee, who is accused of embezzling 188 billion won (US$156 million) from the dental implant maker last year.
The court said that Lee posed a flight risk and could destroy evidence. Lee did not appear at the court’s arrest warrant hearing after he decided not to appeal his case.
Lee has been held in police custody since Wednesday. The police arrested him five days after Osstem Implant filed a complaint against him.
The allegedly embezzled funds are estimated to be equivalent to over 90 percent of the company’s equity of 205 billion won as of end-2020.
The police are working to find out if there were any accomplices who helped Lee during his crime. Osstem Implant has repeatedly emphasized that Lee had acted alone, but police suspect that the fund was too big to be stolen by a single team leader-level employee like him.
Established in 1997, Osstem Implant is the country’s largest manufacturer of dental implants. The company also holds the largest market share in the Asia-Pacific region and is fourth in the global market.
Source: Yohnap News Agency