The government said on Sunday that it has discovered tens of thousands of financial irregularities totaling over 30 billion won in an audit of civic groups that received state subsidies.

The finding was the result of a four-month-long government inspection led by the Office for Government Policy Coordination that wrapped up in April of around 12-thousand civic organizations that received a total of six-point-eight trillion won, or over five billion U.S. dollars, in state funding over the past three years.

The government said one-thousand-865 cases of irregularities were detected, with 31-point-four billion-won worth of state subsidies misappropriated in the form of embezzlement, receiving rebates, covering personal expenses, fabricating documents and insider trading. 

Those groups will be asked to return their subsidies or face criminal complaints, the government said.

According to the presidential office, the inspection included nearly half of all civic groups in the nation, with the exclusion of organizations that received less than 30 million won in subsidies over the last three years as well as those that were previously audited.