[E-Daily Kang Gyeong-rok Travel Reporter] It has been revealed that Kangwon Land employees have been misusing corporate credit cards for several years—not only on weekends and public holidays but also at establishments such as bars, which are restricted under the “Clean Card” program. Numerous instances of “split payments” to circumvent approval limits, as well as evidence of personal use at their residences and remote locations, were also uncovered.

According to corporate credit card usage records and internal audit reports for the period from 2022 to August 2026, submitted to Rep. Choi Soo-jin of the People Power Party—a member of the National Assembly’s Committee on Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups—on the 27th, the amount spent by Gangwon Land employees using corporate cards on weekends and public holidays rose sharply from 379 transactions (121 million won) in 2022 to 976 transactions (267 million won) in 2025. Even in 2026, 582 transactions (154 million won) were recorded through August, bringing the cumulative total for weekend and public holiday transactions over the past five years to 3,593 transactions totaling 933.86 million won.
There have also been a series of inappropriate expenditures at establishments related to entertainment and alcohol consumption. From August of last year through August of this year, there were 195 transactions (21.65 million won) made at wine bars, izakayas, pubs, and pocha. Although such establishments are restricted under the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s budget management guidelines and Kangwon Land’s internal regulations, the employees in question evaded monitoring by simply providing their own justifications, such as “It was an izakaya, but we were there for a Japanese meal” or “We visited for a meal after work.”
High-value payments of 1 million won or more per transaction also surged from 24 cases (48.45 million won) in 2022 to 51 cases (133 million won) in 2025. Notable examples include a 9.8 million won payment at a butcher shop in December 2024 and a 6 million won payment at a fruit shop in November of the same year. In December 2025, evidence was also found of circumventing approval limits through split payments, such as when the same individual made two separate payments—4.85 million won and 3.33 million won—at a bakery on the same day, totaling 8.18 million won. In addition, numerous transactions were detected on weekends and public holidays, not only at theaters and convenience stores near the individual’s residence but also in remote locations such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, and Jeonnam.
Assemblywoman Choi Su-jin emphasized, “Excluding payments at bars from monitoring and handling cases with self-justifications even after they were detected constitutes serious moral hazard,” adding, “A comprehensive audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection must be conducted regarding weekend, bar, and high-value payments across the board, and a robust management system must be established to recover improperly spent funds and prevent recurrence.”