A soldier who stole 200 million won by accessing an administrator's account without permission has his sentence commuted on appeal.

In the first trial, “causing loss to the national budget and misappropriating embezzlement funds for personal use”…sentenced to 3 years in prison
The appeals court said, “There was no additional investigation into the surrender.. Considering the fact that some of the damages were reimbursed, etc.”

A soldier who embezzled hundreds of millions of won while working in accounting at a military base had his sentence commuted on appeal.

According to the legal community on the 26th, the 6-1st Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court overturned the original trial ruling of 3 years in prison at the appellate trial of Mr. A, a soldier in his 40s, who was indicted on charges of violating the law on aggravated punishment for specific crimes on the 14th, and sentenced him to 1 year and 6 months in prison.

In 2021, Mr. A was accused of embezzling approximately 200 million won 564 times over the course of a year by registering his account in the transportation fee payment system for full-time reserve forces.

At the time, it was confirmed that Mr. A committed this crime by accessing the administrator account of the unit's fund management system without permission.

The first trial sentenced Mr. A to three years in prison.

The court said, “Despite the fact that he must perform his official duties with morality and integrity, his crime is bad in that he caused a loss of the national budget amounting to 200 million won,” and added, “The embezzled money he obtained was used for personal purposes, and no loss has been recovered to date.”

Mr. A filed an appeal on the grounds of unfair sentencing.

Mr. A claimed that he surrendered himself to the military police before the investigation began, but that no investigation was conducted.

In addition, he appealed for leniency, saying that part of the damage was repaid through the insured insurance policy.

The appellate court ruled that the original sentence was heavy and unjust.

The court explained, “Even though the investigation team leader heard of the defendant’s surrender, he sent the case back to wait for a request to appear and did not conduct any additional investigation,” adding, “This act of the defendant is equivalent to surrender, which is considered a special mitigating factor in sentencing standards.”

At the same time, he stated the reason for sentencing, saying, "100 million won of the damage was recovered through payment of insurance money according to the defendant's insurance contract. In addition, we took into account the fact that the defendant used most of the embezzled money for living expenses such as raising children and the fact that he is reflecting on the crime."

Lawyer Kim Young-soo of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A in the appeals court, said, "The Supreme Court has ruled that surrendering before arrest constitutes surrender under criminal law, regardless of whether the crime was discovered. Based on this, we were able to get a significant reduction in sentence by arguing that the surrender was excluded from the first trial and emphasizing the fact that damages were repaid."

Reporter Ko Young-min (youngman@ikbc.co.kr)

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A soldier who stole 200 million won by accessing an administrator's account without permission.. Sentence reduced on appeal (go)