PANews reported on March 12 that according to Decrypt, the latest evidence reveals the full details of a South Korean civil servant embezzling $342,000 (497.16 million won) of public funds for personal cryptocurrency investments, including important donations for flood relief. Last December, the civil servant, known as "A," was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling city budgets and public organization funds. The case is currently being heard in the High Court, and the verdict may be extended or overturned.

Although the official's embezzlement occurred over a six-year period between November 2018 and May 2023, the full scope of his crimes - including the misappropriation of flood donations - was not fully revealed until an audit report released by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) on Tuesday. The BAI investigation revealed that the official had access to multiple seals not only of the Cheongju city government but also of third-party business operators, which enabled him to circumvent normal channels and embezzle funds on multiple occasions; he was able to falsify project expenses and approve electronic transactions without proper oversight from his superiors, who failed to verify the legitimacy of the requests; the mayor's seal was often left unattended without proper security measures, and the official's direct superiors failed to properly manage accounting procedures and verify expenditures.