The South Korean government has concluded that former members of the national women’s curling team had endured verbal and emotional abuse from their coaches and did not receive large sums of prize money for competitions.

The Sports Ministry on Thursday announced the findings of its five-week investigation into allegations made by members of the 2018 Winter Olympics silver medal-winning women's curling team last November.

The probe centered on Kim Kyung-doo, the former vice president of the Korean Curling Federation, and his family members including his daughter Min-jung, the former head coach of the women’s team, and her husband Jang Ban-seok, the coach for the mixed doubles team. 

The ministry said most of the allegations made by the curlers proved to be true, and that the coaches didn't fulfill their job requirements and owed nearly 94 million won in prize money to the athletes.

The Kim family attempted to turn the national curling team into a family business by hiring relatives for posts which they were not qualified to hold. In addition, the family misappropriated some 19 million won in grants from the central and local governments. 

The ministry will ask authorities to conduct further investigations into the family’s conduct and inform the National Tax Service of its findings regarding potential tax evasion committed by Kim Kyung-doo.