In South Korea, law enforcement has detained a 60-year-old accountant from a Catholic church in Mokpo for embezzling church donations that were lost due to a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
This is reported by Finway
How the Embezzlement of Church Funds Occurred
According to the police, an unknown man who worked as an accountant at the Catholic church embezzled approximately 480 million won (about $350,000) between July 2024 and August 2025. These funds were collected from around a thousand parishioners for the purchase of land and the construction of a new temple.
During the investigation, law enforcement established that the accountant initially transferred the money to accounts of acquaintances and then returned it to himself to conceal the embezzlement. He explained his actions to the priest and the community as “contract payments for land, construction costs, and other needs.”
Loss of Funds in a Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Scheme
Later, the accountant decided to invest the church’s money in cryptocurrency, following advice from a chat in a messenger where he was promised substantial profits. However, after the sudden closure of this chat, he realized that he had fallen victim to a scam and lost all the funds.
During the interrogation, the suspect admitted guilt and stated that he was “blinded by greed.”
The Catholic Archdiocese of Gwangju, to which the church belongs, has already initiated its own financial audit to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
Currently, the police are investigating not only the actions of the accountant but also the activities of the organizers of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme that involved church funds.
It is worth noting that this is not the first such case in South Korea. In March of this year, it was revealed that an official embezzled $342,000 in budget funds through document forgery and invested it in crypto assets, taking advantage of the mayor’s negligence.