Public institution employee caught making money reselling products online

[Anchor]

Companies and public institutions sell products at discounted prices through welfare websites for employee benefits.

However, it has been revealed that an employee of a public institution made over 18 million won by reselling products purchased at a discount from these sites.

This is Lee Yoon-woo's report.

[Report]

This is an online welfare mall that sells home appliances and electronic products at special prices only to employees of specific companies or public institutions.

Products can be purchased at prices up to about 30% lower than the market price.

However, earlier this year, it was detected that someone had intensively purchased over 90 products from this shopping mall.

The total value of the items, including speakers, air purifiers, and laptops, amounts to over 120 million won.

The individual purchased one or two high-priced electronic products daily, sometimes worth several million won.

Upon investigation, it was found that the buyer was affiliated with the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation.

An internal audit by the corporation revealed that one employee had purchased these products at a discounted price and resold them through a family-named shopping mall with their spouse.

The profit made from this was 18 million won, and to avoid suspicion from bulk purchases, the employee meticulously used work emails and the email accounts of contract employees to make the purchases.

[Korea Industrial Complex Corporation Official/Voice Altered: "In this case, the employee used other accounts, and the main reason for the disciplinary action was that our employees are prohibited from engaging in profit-making activities."]

The problem is that there is no way to prevent such actions in advance.

[Kang Seung-kyu/Member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, and Energy Committee/People Power Party: "Such actions ultimately lead to direct damage to the company. Many public institution employees are using private companies' welfare malls, and I think a thorough investigation is needed to see if there have been similar fraudulent activities in each institution."]

The corporation has stated that it will dismiss the employee involved and report them to the police along with their spouse, while also strengthening employee ethics training and improving the system to prevent future wrongdoings.

KBS News, Lee Yoon-woo.