A bank manager in South Korea has been caught after allegedly swapping real cash for colourful toy money in a bizarre fraud that ended up costing a local bank more than 70 million won – around $67,000 AUD.
The incident happened at a small branch of the Saemaul Credit Union in the city of Gyeongju. Due to the branch’s small staff, the manager reportedly had regular unsupervised access to the bank vault, giving him the opportunity to handle large cash deposits on his own.
Investigators allege he gradually removed genuine banknotes and replaced them with play money purchased online. Rather than using convincing counterfeit notes, he used brightly coloured children’s toy cash featuring cartoon animals and oversized numbers. To avoid raising suspicion, genuine notes were reportedly placed on the top and bottom of each bundle, hiding the fake money in the middle during quick inspections.
The plan relied on a lack of oversight, with the vault not being thoroughly checked on a regular basis. It eventually unravelled when another employee became suspicious, prompting an internal investigation that uncovered the missing cash and the fake notes.
Perhaps the biggest surprise came after the fraud was exposed. According to reports, the manager returned the missing money and was dismissed from his position, with no immediate reports of serious criminal charges being laid.
The unusual case has attracted plenty of attention online, with many amazed that such a simple scheme managed to work at all. In an era where financial fraud is increasingly high-tech, this old-school approach using toy money has left plenty of people shaking their heads.
