ACRC PAID REWARDS OF APPROX. 300 MILLION WON TO 32 CORRUPTION AND PUBLIC INTEREST WHISTLEBLOWERS.
– ACRC offered about 300 million won in rewards to 32 whistleblowers for corruption and public interest violations this month (August)… The revenues recovered through corruption and public interest reports by public institutions reached about 3.1 billion won.
(26, August. 2025, ACRC)
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) announced that it paid about 300 million won in rewards to 32 whistleblowers for corruption and public interest violations in August.
According to data compiled by the ACRC, the amount of revenues recovered by public institutions through corruption and public interest reports this month reached about 3.1 billion won. The top three sectors in which the biggest rewards were received were: employment (about 160 million won, 55.5%); research and development (about 60 million won, 21.2%); and welfare (about 20 million won, 8.2%).
< Cases of Reward Payment by Sector >
| Sector | Main content |
| Employment | Over 87 million won was paid in rewards to a whistleblower A for reporting an owner of a sports facility who falsely claimed employment retention subsidies by pretending employees were on leave while they were actually working. |
| Approx. 20 million won was paid in rewards to a whistleblower B for reporting a representative of a company who falsely submitted s to fraudulently claim the youth employment project grant by pretending a former employee was still working. | |
| R & D | Over 45 million won was paid in rewards to a whistleblower C for reporting a company representative who fraudulently claimed R&D funds by falsely registering participants in a public institution’s research and development project. |
| Approx. 16 million won was paid in rewards to a whistleblower D for reporting a company representative who conspired with other company to issue false tax invoices to illegally claim R&D funds during a research and development project. | |
| Welfare | A total of 9 million won was paid in rewards to whistleblowers E and F, 4.5 million won for each, for reporting individuals who illegally received basic living security benefits by receiving wages in cash despite having higher income than his recognized income. |
| A reward of 4 million won was paid to a whistleblower G for reporting a case where the reported individual illegally claimed single-parent family support subsidies by not disclosing his and his de facto spouse’s incomes. |
Furthermore, the ACRC additionally paid approximately 7 million won in rewards to six whistleblowers for cases where only partial rewards were initially provided, due to incomplete recovery of revenues by public institutions, after these institutions have seen additional recovery to their revenues.
Kim Eung Tae, Director General of the Inspection and Protection Bureau of the ACRC, said, “The ACRC uncovers corruption and public interest infringements that occur in a clandestine manner in our society through reports, and provides corresponding rewards to whistleblowers,” adding that “we will continue to provide rewards in an active manner to whistleblowers to encourage more active reporting.”