April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] A disabled Samsung Electronics employee in a wheelchair was arrested for stealing and selling 8,474 smartphones from the office for years, the police said on June 7.

The man, surnamed Lee, stole the phones for developers between December 2014 and November 2016 at the Samsung headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. He sold the phones to a second-hand phone retailer for 800 million won (US$711,743). 

 

Removed batteries from the stolen phones. They have a "Not for sale" mark.

Lee joined Samsung in 2010 when the Korean tech giant offered jobs for people with disabilities and worked for the maintenance of old phones that are used by developers to study upgrades or new features.

All Samsung employees are required to go through a body scanner before leaving the office but Lee bound in an electronic wheelchair was allowed to skip the security check.

Samsung reported the case in December last year after finding out some not-for-sale phones were distributed in Vietnam.

The police said he used the money to pay off his debt worth 900 million won from gambling.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)