Tag: bribery

That is at least what a Seoul court ruled earlier this week in a bribery case involving two teachers in  Seoul:

A Seoul court on Wednesday ruled in favor of two private school teachers who accepted money and gifts from the parents of their students.

The teachers, who work at Gyeseong Elementary School, were both charged with taking bribes but later acquitted by the Seoul Central District Court.

The ruling prompted an angry response from those in the education circle, with Kim Hyung-nam, the inspector of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, calling the decision “embarrassing.”

One of the teachers, surnamed Shin, 48, stood accused of taking cash, gift certificates and gifts worth a total of 4.6 million won ($3,930) from two parents over multiple occasions when he taught fourth-grade last year.

The other, surnamed Kim, 45, was accused of accepting 4 million won as well as valuables from one parent.

The court ruled Wednesday that while Shin had accepted the money and gifts, those actions did not amount to bribe-taking.

He was asked to do general favors for the students, the court said, but did not carry out unlawful favors in return for compensation.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

It just wouldn’t be a major construction project in Korea without a bribery scandal of some kind and USFK is not immune to this:

Police said Tuesday that they have raided SK Engineering & Construction Co. and its construction site on a U.S. base in central South Korea over slush fund allegations involving a U.S. military official.

The National Police Agency confiscated materials including account books and computer hard disks from the head office of SK E&C in Seoul and its work site at the U.S. Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

An SK E&C subcontractor allegedly stashed away about 1 billion won (US$890,000) and handed it over to a then USFK official in 2010, according to the official. The now-defunct subcontractor is headed by a former South Korean field officer.

The police have already obtained witness accounts from former employees of the subcontractor. They are currently investigating whether SK E&C was involved.

They have also sent investigators to the U.S. to ask U.S. law enforcement authorities for cooperation in searching for the former USFK official.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but $890,000 bribe has got to be one of the biggest bribery scandals in USFK history.  That is a lot of money.  If anyone is wondering, corruption involving USFK personnel is nothing new. What is important is that these people are caught and punished to discourage others from trying to pull off the same scams.

It is going to be hard for President Park to launch an anti-corruption campaign in the wake of the Sewol ferry boat tragedy when the people around her that are supposed to implement it are all taking bribes if the allegations are true:

Sung, the chairman of Keangnam Enterprises, died in an apparent suicide after leaving the list.

Although President Park ordered the prosecution to conduct a thorough investigation into the graft scandal, Sunday, Cheong Wa Dae has refrained from commenting on the issue.

In a bid to fight corruption, she vowed again Thursday that anyone who is found to be involved in any illicit activities will face the consequences without exception.

Park’s biggest political hurdle would appear to be the besieged prime minister, because Lee is leading the government’s ambitious anti-corruption campaign.

The Kyunghyang Shinmun, which interviewed Sung hours before his death, reported Tuesday that the businessman said he had given Lee 30 million won ($27,000) during the 2013 by-elections, when Lee ran for a parliamentary seat representing Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province.

Park has set her sights on fighting graft as part of strengthening her control because the April 16, 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which hit her administration hard, was blamed on collusive ties between ferry operators, regulators and politicians.

In addition, Park’s plans to reform the debt-heavy pension system for civil servants and the stiff labor market are also expected to hit a snag amid intensifying political attacks from opposition parties. The processing of economy-related bills pending before the National Assembly is also not on the cards in the short-term.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t understand why the Korean politicians don’t just legalize bribery and just call it campaign contributions like how the US political system works.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the latest scandal to plague the Park administration:

The disclosure of a so-called “bribery list” left behind by an embattled businessman at the center of a snowballing corruption scandal before he committed suicide continued to put the government of President Park Geun-hye on edge Saturday.

Sung Wan-jong, head of Kyeangnam Enterprise Ltd., killed himself by hanging on Thursday, hours before he was to appear before a Seoul court set to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for him on various corruption charges.

A brief memo found in his trouser pocket dropped a bombshell in South Korean politics. Listed in the memo are the names of eight heavyweight politicians, all close confidants of Park, and won figures next to them, indicating that the money was delivered.

The eight politicians include Park’s two former chiefs of staff — Huh Tae-yeol and Kim Ki-choon — her current chief of staff, Lee Byung-kee, and Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo as well as Hong Moon-jong, a ruling party lawmaker who had served as the President’s campaign manager in 2012.

According to the local daily Kyunghyang, Sung said in an interview with it on Thursday right before committing suicide that he gave some 200 million won (US$182,000) in cash in to Hong and that he believes the money was used for Park’s election campaign.

“I don’t think he would have spent the money for himself. That was for the election,” he told Kyunghyang. The daily belatedly made public part of the phone interview.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.