In South Korea, law enforcement has arrested a 60-year-old accountant of a Catholic church in Mokpo, who embezzled funds from parishioners and lost them by participating in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
This is reported by Business • Media
Embezzlement of church funds and a cover-up scheme
According to the police, the man, whose name has not been disclosed, illegally appropriated 480 million won (approximately $350,000) between July 2024 and August 2025. This money was collected from around a thousand parishioners for the purchase of land and the construction of a new church.
The embezzled funds were initially transferred by the accountant to the accounts of his acquaintances, and then returned to his own account to disguise the embezzlement. He explained these transactions to the priest and the church community as “contract payments for land, construction costs, and other needs.”
Cryptocurrency fraud and consequences
Later, the man invested the parishioners’ money in cryptocurrencies, based on advice from a messenger chat that promised high returns. After the chat suddenly disappeared, he realized that he had become a victim of a fraudulent scheme.
During the interrogation, the suspect admitted: “I was blinded by greed.”
The Catholic Archdiocese of Gwangju, to which the church belongs, has initiated its own audit of financial activities. Meanwhile, the police are not only investigating the accountant’s actions but also examining the activities of the fraudulent organization that received the funds.
It is worth noting that a similar case occurred earlier this year: a South Korean official, taking advantage of his position, embezzled $342,000 of public funds by falsifying documents and invested them in crypto assets.