Prosecutors on Thursday raided the head office of the nation’s professional baseball governing body as part of their investigation into allegations that several employees embezzled its funds.

The employees of the Korea Baseball Organization, including a former secretary general whose identity has been withheld, are under suspicion of siphoning off the government funds worth 713 million won ($667,000) by cooking the books, prosecutors said.

A team of prosecutors and investigators at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office obtained computer hard drives and confidential documents such as the accounting books from the office in southern Seoul to corroborate the charges, they said.

The investigation came after the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in January asked the prosecution office to investigate 10 national and regional sports federations, including the KBO, for alleged corruption.

After launching a nationwide inspection of nearly 3,000 sports bodies at the national, provincial and municipal levels, the ministry said that it has uncovered 337 different corrupt practices at 493 sports agencies. (Yonhap)