The Korea Hana Foundation conducted a cooperative audit with the Ministry of Unification from March 27 to April 20 and reportedly identified corruption by the ex-manager of its information technology team, identified only as Mr. Ryu, who worked under the Protection and Settlement Assistance for North Korean Defectors Act.
A joint audit by the Ministry of Unification and the Korea Hana Foundation determined that since September 2011, Mr. Ryu received a total of 160 million KPW from seven cooperative firms including a software supply company.
The Foundation conducted a complete audit with the Ministry of Unification for approximately one month from March this year and uncovered Mr. Ryu’s corruption after inspecting all of his financial accounts that have been in use since 2011.
The Ministry of Unification lodged a complaint to the prosecutor’s office, and the Korea Hana Foundation took immediate steps to defend itself from further losses, including placing Ryu’s real estate property under provisional seizure.
Mr. Ryu joined the Korea Hana Foundation in March 2011 as an IT team manager and left the foundation in September last year.
Ryu has reportedly denied all accusations, saying, “I only borrowed money temporarily from the companies, they weren’t bribes.”
The Korea Hana Foundation was established in September 2010 under the Protection and Settlement Assistance for North Korean Defectors Act as a government-funded organization. The first chief director of the foundation was Kim Il Joo, followed by Jung Ok Im, and then Son Guang Joo who took office in August 2015. Chief director Son has been seen as leading the way in tackling internal corruption under the guiding slogan “everlasting life for integrity, death to corruption.”
