By Han Sang-hee

Employees from a textbook publishing company were indicted for receiving bribes and deliberately raising textbook costs, police said Sunday.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office indicted 48-year-old Kang who worked in the general affairs department of the non-profit Korea Authorized Textbook company and three other employees on charges of embezzlement.

"Their misdeeds directly affected the cost of textbooks by 20 percent, and this burden was passed onto the parents and students who purchased the books," an official from the prosecutors' office said.

The authorities also indicted 12 printers for lavishing Kang with money and other goods.

Kang allegedly received some 1.5 billion won ($1.3 million) from some 65 suppliers and printing companies from March 2006 through January this year. Holding a monopoly helped a great deal, as most of the suppliers and printing businesses had to go through the company one way or the other.

Along with financial gains, Kang and another three employees were known to have demanded other goods, including bicycles, gift certificates and expenses for overseas trips. In addition, they allegedly used some 400 million won for entertainment purposes.

Authorities also found that they stole and sold content to be used for textbooks for 786 million won.

Korea Authorized Textbook was founded in 1982 as a non-profit company by 98 publishing companies to avoid "excessive" competition in the textbook publishing industry. It has not undergone a single audit or investigation in the past 30 years.