SEOUL/PAJU, South Korea– The father of a dental implant maker employee who was arrested for allegedly embezzling 221 billion won (US$185 million) in company funds was found dead in the north of Seoul, officials said Tuesday.
The 69-year-old was found dead inside a vehicle at an empty lot in Paju, 30 kilometers north of Seoul, at around 5 p.m., according to Paju Police Station. Police were searching for him after he went missing earlier in the day, leaving a suicide note.
He was scheduled to face police questioning on suspicions of helping his son stash the embezzlement proceeds.
Police were looking into whether the father, the wife and the sister-in-law of the 45-year-old Osstem employee, identified only by his surname Lee, played a part in the suspected embezzlement.
Lee, who was arrested Saturday, allegedly used the embezzled money to buy 851 gold bars. Police have confiscated 755 of them, including 254 from three separate locations in connection with the father, Lee’s wife and his sister.
The focus of the investigation of the three family members was on whether they took part in the suspected embezzlement or stashing of criminal proceeds.
Osstem Implant, the country’s largest dental implants manufacturer, has repeatedly emphasized that Lee had acted alone, but police suspect that the fund was too big to be stolen by a single team leader-level employee like him.
A day earlier, the company raised additional embezzlement charges against Lee and separate charges of stashing criminal proceeds against Lee’s family members, including the wife, his sister and the sister-in-law’s couple.
Source: Yonhap News Agency