Amorepacific's headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of Amorepacific

By Park Jae-hyuk

Amorepacific apologized Tuesday, after it was reported that three of its employees had embezzled a combined 3 billion won ($2.3 million) to invest in stocks and cryptocurrencies, as well as for illegal gambling.

"Through our recent internal audit, we discovered the embezzlement by our employees and disciplined them," the company said in a statement. "As we recovered most of the stolen money, we were able to minimize the financial damage."

The cosmetics firm did not disclose the specific measures it took against the embezzlers nor the amount they had stolen, because companies do not need to make such disclosures, unless the amount of their stolen money exceeds 5 percent of their equity capital.

"While continuously allowing our employees to do their work autonomously, we will take measures to prevent them from being tempted to commit illegal acts," Amorepacific said. "We apologize for causing any worry to the people who love us."

The recent embezzlement involving Amorepacific was among a series of similar cases that have occurred at Korean companies in various sectors this year.

Last week, the police arrested an employee of Clio for stealing a combined 1.8 billion won from the medium-sized cosmetics manufacturer for about a year. Although the company dismissed the employee in March, it has reportedly faced difficulties in recouping the stolen money, which is said to have been used mostly for gambling.

In January, an Osstem Implant employee embezzled 221.5 billion won for stock investments.

Woori Bank also found out in April that an employee embezzled 61.4 billion won, before it was reported this month that another employee of the bank stole 500 million won from an automated telling machine.

In March, an LG Uplus employee fled abroad after stealing more than 3 billion won.