An employee of Samsung Electronics has been arrested for stealing 8474 smartphones from the company's headquarters between 2010 and 2016, a report says.
The man, who was in a wheelchair, was said to have stolen the phones from developers, and sold them to a second-hand retailer for 800 million won (US$711,743).
He joined the company in 2010 at a time when Samsung offered jobs to disabled people and worked in maintaining older phones that developers use to study upgrades or new features, the Korean Investor said.
Since he was in a wheelchair, he was not required to pass through the entry and exit security scanners that all employees were required to pass through.
{loadposition sam08}The batteries of the phones were marked "Not for sale" and could thus be distinguished from regular models.
Samsung became aware of the theft when some phones with the marking were noticed in Vietnam.
South Korean police said the man had used the money he made from selling the phones to pay off a gambling debt of some 900 million won.