Lawmaker fined 15 mln won for embezzling funds donated to sexual slavery victims

▲ Rep. Youn Mee-hyang (C) arrives at the Seoul Western District Court on Feb. 10, 2023, to attend a hearing on her alleged embezzlement case. (Yonhap)

lawmaker-sentence

Lawmaker fined 15 mln won for embezzling funds donated to sexual slavery victims

SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- Independent lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang was sentenced by a court to a fine of 15 million won (US$11,900) on Friday for embezzling funds donated to help support women who were forced into wartime sexual slavery by Japan during World War II.

Youn was indicted in 2020 for collecting hundreds of millions of won in donations to her private bank accounts and spending some of that money for personal matters, while heading a major civic group for wartime sexual slavery victims, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery.

Youn led the group between 2005-20 before winning a parliamentary seat on the Democratic Party's (DP) ticket in 2020. The DP expelled Youn in 2021, and she has since been an independent.

(END)

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved