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Gov't employee who pocketed money from selling official garbage bags sentenced to 3 years

Published: 08 Jan. 2026, 16:59

Jeju City pay-as-you-throw garbage bag [YONHAP]

A former Jeju city government employee has been sent to prison after pocketing hundreds of millions of won from the sale of government-assigned garbage bags, turning trash disposal fees into a personal payday.

The Jeju District Court on Thursday sentenced the former employee, who was indicted in custody on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, to three years in prison.

In Korea, the fees paid by individuals for the garbage bags go toward trash disposal efforts by authorities.

“The defendant, despite being a public official held to a high standard of professional ethics, exploited loopholes in the work system to embezzle a large amount of money,” the court said, adding that the crime undermined the fairness and public trust required from the public service.

The court noted that the defendant’s actions caused significant losses, but said it took into account that the defendant admitted to the crime and expressed remorse, as well as the city’s lax oversight that allowed the scheme to occur.

Prosecutors said the former employee who worked at Jeju city’s living environment division, in charge of supplying and managing the bags, siphoned off more than 600 million won ($413,000) in sales proceeds over 3,837 instances between April 2018 and July 2025.

Investigators found that the former employee delivered the bags to designated retailers and collected payments in cash, then processed the orders as if they had been canceled to pocket the money. The scheme began with about 30 cases in 2018, but, after going undetected, the frequency rose steadily and reached around 1,100 cases in 2025.

The embezzled money was reportedly spent on living expenses, online games and online gambling. Jeju city said it convened a personnel committee and dismissed the former employee as of Dec. 29, 2025.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]