Here is more on the GI crime front from this weekend. U.S. Army WTF Moments is reporting not only about the vehicle theft last weekend, but also an officer soliciting a prostitute. Times have definitely changed because 20 years ago this was a normal weekend in the ville:
It has been quiet on the GI crime front until this past weekend:
A United States Forces Korea (USFK) service member was arrested after causing an accident while driving under the influence with a stolen vehicle, police said Monday.
According to the Goyang Police Precinct, a USFK soldier in their 20s deployed at a base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, stole a car in Mapo District, western Seoul, between Saturday night and early Sunday.
The soldier drove the stolen car and hit two vehicles, including a truck, while they were waiting for the traffic light to change at 6:17 a.m. Sunday.Police apprehended the soldier after the crash.
Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip
Two people were injured in the accident, according to the police.
The soldier was found to have stolen a parked car, in which the owner left their keys, after drinking alcohol in the Hongdae area.
You can read more at the link.
With how small cameras are getting today this guy wasn’t trying very hard to hide his spy cameras with something this obvious:
This photo shows a spy camera found at an early voting polling station in Yangsan, 301 kilometers southeast of Seoul, provided by the South Gyeongsang Province police authority on March 29, 2024.
Police said Saturday they have requested an arrest warrant for a YouTuber suspected of installing spy cameras at some 40 early voting stations ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections.
Officials at Incheon Nonhyeon Police Station said the suspect, a man in his 40s, allegedly placed hidden cameras at about 40 early polling stations in major cities, including Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Ulsan and Daegu.
The interior ministry earlier said spy cameras had been found at 26 early voting stations as of Friday.
The suspect reportedly told the police that he wanted to monitor the National Election Commission’s manipulation of turnout rates for early voting.
The man is also under suspicion of having installed hidden cameras in polling stations during the 2022 presidential election and the by-election for the mayorship of Gangseo District in Seoul in October, according to officials.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The weird scandal involving South Korean Olympic medalist fencer Nam Hyun-hee has apparently come to an end, unless Jeon Cheong-jo can find away to scam her/himself? out of jail:
Jeon Cheong-jo, the 28-year-old former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee, is moved to the Seoul Eastern District Court for a trial on Feb. 14, 2024. (Yonhap)
A Seoul court sentenced the scandal-ridden former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee to 12 years in prison on Wednesday on fraud and forgery charges.
The 28-year-old former fiance, Jeon Cheong-jo, was charged with swindling a total of about 3 billion won (US$2.25 million) from 27 people under the pretext of investment between 2022 and 2023.
Jeon presented herself to the victims as a secret heir to the high-end Paradise Hotel chain, enticing them with false investment opportunities that she portrayed as exclusively reserved for rich conglomerate families, according to investigations.
Jeon gained notoriety after breaking up with Nam, the silver medalist in women’s foil at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, following revelations that Jeon was legally a woman, not an heir to the Paradise Hotel chain and had multiple records of fraud.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like there will not be any more jail time for Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong:
A Seoul court acquitted Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Monday in connection with the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates allegedly conducted to help him take over control of South Korea’s biggest conglomerate.
The Seoul Central District Court delivered the not-guilty sentence for Lee, three years and five months after he was indicted on charges of involvement in market irregularities in the merger of Cheil Industries Inc. and Samsung C&T Corp. to solidify his managerial control of the group at a lower cost.
Lee was charged with stock price rigging, breach of trust and accounting fraud in the course of the controversial 2015 merger, where three Samsung C&T shares were offered for one Cheil share.
The merger was seen as crucial to Lee’s succession as the heir of the family-controlled group, as his father, Lee Kun-hee, had suffered a heart attack the previous year.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I don’t know how smashing someone over the head 15 times with a rock is an accident. With that said it appears this kid is a nutjob which was what I suspected when this first was reported:
This image, provided by People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin’s office, shows the scene of the attack on her in Seoul on Jan. 25, 2024. (Yonhap)
The teenage assailant of ruling party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin has claimed that his attack was accidental, saying he had been waiting to be admitted to a hospital for worsening depression, police officials said Friday.
The 15-year-old boy was detained Thursday afternoon shortly after attacking Bae of the ruling People Power Party with a rock the size of an adult man’s fist in Seoul’s southern district of Gangnam for unclear reasons.
Bae, a television news anchor-turned-lawmaker, was struck on the head 15 times. She was taken to Soonchunhyang University Hospital and had her bleeding wound stapled. She remains hospitalized there.
Police questioned the suspect in the presence of his guardian the previous day, and collected his mobile phone and social media history to determine the exact motive behind the crime.
During the investigation, the suspect told the police that he left home about two hours before the incident, bumped into Bae and accidentally committed the attack, according to police officials.
He reportedly said he had been waiting, at a doctor’s order, to be admitted to a closed psychiatric ward due to a depression relapse.
He also said he was habitually carrying the rock with him.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
More political violence in South Korea as parliamentary elections are just two months away:
This Dec. 6, 2023, file photo shows People Power Party lawmaker Rep. Bae Hyun-jin. (Yonhap)
People Power Party lawmaker Rep. Bae Hyun-jin sustained a head injury after being attacked by an unidentified assailant Thursday but remains in stable condition, her office said.
The incident happened around 5 p.m. in the southern Seoul district of Gangnam. According to Bae’s aide, a male pedestrian walked up to Bae and asked, “Are you the lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin?” and struck her in the back of the head with a rock the size of an adult man’s fist.
Bae was transported to Soonchunhyang University Hospital with her head bleeding. Bae remained conscious and her injury is not believed to be life threatening.
The suspect was momentarily arrested by police in Gangnam, and claimed to officers that he is 15 years old.
Bae, 40, is a former television news anchor who was elected to her first term in the National Assembly in 2020. She briefly served as a spokesperson for then President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.
CCTV footage provided by Bae’s office showed that the suspect struck the lawmaker fifteen times with the rock within a span of some 10 seconds until nearby witnesses physically engaged the suspect.
Footage showed that the suspect, who wore a mask and a beanie while dressed in a hoodie, remained at the scene observing the lawmaker until Bae’s aides apprehended him. He was later handed over to police.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the doctors believe she will be okay after stitching her head closed. They are going to continue to monitor her for a concussion and microbleeding in her cranium. It will be interesting to see what the motivation was for the attacker to commit this crime or if he has a history of mental illness or not.
The underwear guy is out of jail for now:
This undated file photo shows former Ssangbangwool Group Chairman Kim Sung-tae delivering a speech at an unidentified event.
A local court on Tuesday granted bail to the former chairman of South Korean underwear maker Ssangbangwool who had been arrested for embezzlement and illegal remittance to North Korea.
The Suwon District Court allowed former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Sung-tae to be released on bail on condition that he pay 100 million won (US$75,000) and carry a real-time location tracking device with him until trials are over.
The former chairman was released late Tuesday evening when the deposit was paid, a company official said.
“With the court’s decision, the former chairman will attend the remaining trials without physical detention,” Ssangbangwool said in a statement.
On Feb. 3, 2023, Kim was indicted and detained on charges of embezzlement of funds worth 54 billion won in the group’s five unlisted “paper” companies and an illegal remittance of $8 million to the North and has since been behind bars.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it is alleged that the money he was sending to North Korea was a payoff to allow Lee Jae-myung to travel to North Korea when he was the Gyeongi-do governor at the time.
Hopefully they don’t ever let this guy out of prison on parole:
This file photo shows Choi Yun-jong, the suspect accused of attempting to rape, then murdering a woman in her 30s at a hiking trail in southern Seoul on Aug. 25, 2023. (Yonhap)
A Seoul court sentenced the suspect in last year’s attempted rape and killing of a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul to life in prison Monday, saying he should be separated from society forever.
Choi Yun-jong, 30, was indicted on charges of fatally beating, throttling and attempting to rape the victim he randomly picked on a hillside hiking trail in the Sillim neighborhood on Aug. 17.
The victim, an elementary school teacher in her 30s, was left unattended for some 20 minutes before being taken to a hospital, but died two days later.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The government is still indicting people over the Itaewon crowd crushing tragedy:
Prosecutors have indicted two police officers over the bungled response to the deadly 2022 crowd crush in the district of Itaewon, officials said Monday.
The indictment of the two officers who were overseeing patrol duties at a precinct station in Itaewon came a year and three months after the crowd crush on Oct. 29, 2022, which killed 159 people on a Halloween weekend in the district’s entertainment neighborhood.
The Seoul Western District Prosecutors Office has charged them with professional negligence resulting in death, accusing them of failing to properly respond to 11 emergency calls seeking police help in the last hours of the deadly accident.
One of them was also charged with entering a false record of visiting the accident site on that day into the police intranet, the officials said.
The two are the last government officials to be indicted in connection with the crowd crush, among the 23 that a special police investigation team referred to the prosecution in January 2023.
Last week, the prosecution indicted Kim Kwang-ho, the chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, on charges of professional negligence for the botched disaster response, making him the highest-ranking government official indicted in connection with the crowd crush.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
