Tag: crime

It looks like from the corporate side of the Sewol Ferry disaster the authorities are making the company’s president the fall guy:

The head of the operator of the South Korean Sewol ferry that sank in April killing more than 300 people has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.

The Gwangju district convicted Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine, of criminal negligence.
Investigators found the ferry had been overloaded with cargo which contributed to its sinking.
Last week, the court sentenced 15 crew members to between five and 36 years in prison. (BBC)

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out:

After almost seven hours of testimony Monday, the Article 32 hearing for a senior Army National Guard officer charged with knowingly exposing a woman to HIV by having unprotected sex will continue into Tuesday.

Col. Jeffrey Pounding, a Special Forces officer who is currently assigned as the deputy director of the National Guard Bureau’s strategic plans and policy directorate (J-5), faces one charge each of assault, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer.
The woman who is accusing Pounding of exposing her to HIV said their relationship began when they were both at Texas A&M University, where he was an Army fellow. ( Army Times)

You can read more at the link, but if it is proven this Colonel knowingly gave her HIV I would hope that would lead to jail time.

The captain of the Sewol ferry boat will likely die in prison considering his age, but I am surprised how the engineer was convicted of murder and not the captain:

A district court on Tuesday sentenced the captain of the sunken ferry Sewol to 36 years in prison for abandoning passengers at the time of the deadly sinking.

Lee Joon-seok, however, was acquitted of charges that he murdered 304 passengers as he left them behind while he was the first to be rescued when the ill-fated ship was sinking off South Korea’s southern coast on April 16.

The Gwangju District Court in this southern city convicted the 68-year-old skipper of gross negligence and dereliction of duty, including abandoning his ship while the passengers, most of them high school students on a school trip, remained trapped inside the ship.

“Captain Lee ordered the second mate to tell passengers to get off the ship when the patrol ship was about to arrive at the scene,” judge Lim Jung-yeob said in his ruling. “It is hard to conclude that the captain’s act eventually led to the death of the passengers just based on the evidence submitted by the prosecution.”

Prosecutors, who had earlier sought the death penalty against Lee, said they would immediately appeal the verdict.

In the same ruling, the Gwangju District Court sentenced the ship’s chief engineer, only identified by his surname Park, to 30 years in prison, convicting him of murder.

Prison terms ranging from five years to 20 years were delivered to 13 other crew members, including the first engineer surnamed Sohn, who have been charged with abandonment and violation of a ship safety act. (Yonhap)

I do find it interesting how these crew members are deservedly getting smashed with these sentences while the corporate owners and aids of the ferry boat company who in my opinion are the biggest villains get a slap on the wrist.

The light punishment for corporate criminals in Korea continues:

Yoo Dae-gyun, the eldest son of the late Yoo Byung-eun, the de facto owner of Chonghaejin Marine that operated the sunken ferry Sewol, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday in district court.

The Incheon District Court found him guilty of embezzlement and breach of trust.

The sentence was lighter than the four years imprisonment the prosecution had earlier demanded.

According to the court, the Yoo took 7.3 billion won in fees from seven companies owned by his family, including Chonghaejin, for using a trademark held by him from May 2002 to last December.

He obtained trademark rights for the name of Sewol’s sister ferry, Ohamana, and Chonghaejin paid him 3.5 billion won for the use of the name.

“We recognize Yoo embezzled the money under the name of trademark use and advisory service fees by taking advantage of the fact that he was the son of the senior Yoo who established those companies,” the court said.  [Korea Times]

Look at the sentences the other Yoo family members and aids received:

In the meantime, the late senior Yoo’s brothers, Byung-il and Byung-ho, were given a suspended jail term and two years in prison, respectively, for embezzlement and breach of trust at the companies for which they worked, which were also set up by the Yoo family.

Four other aides to the late senior Yoo, who were heads or high-ranking officials of the companies set up by the family, were sentenced to two to four years for embezzlement or breach of trust as well. Six other aides received suspended jail terms for the same charges.

How come I have a feeling that backroom deals were worked out for these sentences to keep people quiet about their collusion with government officials?

Here is another story of a servicemember sent to jail on he said, she said evidence and he didn’t even commit a physical assault:

A hard-charging senior enlisted leader finds himself suddenly sidelined in his mission and his stellar career, ordered home from the war zone amid an investigation into a criminal record arising out of a domestic confrontation a full decade ago.

The probe into the 2006 civilian prosecution of then-Tech Sgt. Eric Soluri highlights the Air Force’s ongoing challenges in fully and fairly holding airmen accountable for their conduct. It’s a responsibility under heightened scrutiny today as all services work to eliminate a reputation for minimizing conduct and policies harmful to women. And it underscores how misconduct by some airmen may fall through the cracks as hundreds are being kicked out of an Air Force cutting end strength by separating those who have had even minor blemishes on their service records.

Whether Soluri’s civilian prosecution escaped the full notice of his chain of command or was ever part of his Air Force record is unclear. However, he quickly recovered from an incident that could have ended his career to a fast track to E-9.

In November 2004, when he was working as an E-6 recruiter in Massachusetts, he threatened to bash in the head of his former girlfriend with a candle jar. The woman, a staff sergeant at Hanscom Air Force Base, told authorities they’d been arguing when he demanded she rub his feet and dance naked for him. She refused. Soluri was convicted in a civilian courtroom two years later of threatening to commit a crime. He served 14 days of a six-month jail sentence and was court-ordered to attend a batterers program and undergo a psychological evaluation.

His career should have been over. Soluri himself expected as much, and unsuccessfully petitioned the judge to remove the jail time from his record. But he remained in the Air Force, and just months after he walked out of jail, in June 2007, he was selected for promotion to master sergeant.Soluri was promoted two more times, to the top one percent of the enlisted force, at a time when the slightest infraction — failed PT tests or administrative discipline, for example — has ended the careers of thousands of airmen.  [Air Force Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but Soluri denied what the girlfriend claimed:

When interviewed by the detective in January 2005, Soluri denied the allegations. He said the woman made up the story because Soluri had threatened to tell the staff sergeant’s leadership about her alleged drinking problem. Soluri also accused his former girlfriend of striking his son from a previous marriage.

Morrison reported those allegations to local child and family services officials, but the matter was dropped.

So the only evidence used to convict the NCO was the girlfriend’s testimony about a threat and he did not even physically assault her while his testimony about her committing child abuse was dropped.  I do not know who is telling the truth, heck they both could be lying, but this is another perfect example of how hard these domestic violence cases are to adjudicated.  That is why his leadership at the time likely let him stay in the Air Force instead of taking action to kick him out.

What I am wondering is what Soluri answered on this security clearance background check in regards to whether he was convicted of committing a crime.  If he lied about that then he should be charged.  Even if he was honest about his prior conviction and did nothing wrong to cover it up, his career is likely over after all this negative publicity.

Below are the USFK Court Martial and ROK Criminal Prosecution Results for September 2014 that were posted on the USFK website.  Of interest in September was that a Captain refused to take the breathalyzer test and was convicted of this crime.  He received a 5,000,000 won fine which is steeper than the usual 3,000,000 won fine DUI convictions usually receive.  However, he doesn’t get a DUI conviction on his record.  Is that worth 2,000,000 won?  Probably if refusing the breathalyzer doesn’t get him kicked out of the Army. Then 1-38 FA had three soldiers get convicted of obstruction to include one soldier for also performing an indecent act and had to register as a sex offender.  I wonder what that soldier did to the KNPs to get that punishment?

Below are the USFK court martial and ROK criminal prosection results for August 2014 that were posted on the USFK website.  The court martial results have a number of sex offender cases with a couple of people actually found not guilty of the crimes.  Then in the ROK criminal prosecution there is a major that was convicted of an indecent at and has to take sex offender classes and register as a sex offender.  He looks like a candidate now for officer cuts, but I wonder if the sex offender label in Korea follows him to the US as well?  That would be worse punishment than being discharged from the Army in my opinion.

A man in Wonju came home to find a burglar robbing his home and proceeded to put a beat down on him that has now cost him his freedom:

A 20-year-old man is serving his jail term that he received for assaulting a 50-year-old burglar, YTN reported Friday.

Choi received an 18-month prison sentence in a trial on charges of making the thief brain dead by hitting him with a drying rack.

The thief, identified as Kim, broke into Choi’s house in Wonju, Gangwaon Province in March. Choi came home at around 3 a.m. after a drink with friends and found the thief rifling through drawers. Choi called the police and fought off the intruder.

He claimed self-defense in assaulting the 50-year-old man with the “light, aluminum” drying rack, but the court ruled against him.

The court found the drying rack was a “dangerous material” to use to defend himself against the thief who was unarmed and trying to run away.  [Korea Observer]

You can read more at the link, but the beat down he put on the burglar resulted in him going brain dead.  So the judge felt this was excessive force.  If a criminal is in your house and you surprise him how is the home owner supposed to know what this guys intent was?  This guy could have had a knife for all he knew.  When it comes to crimes like this I definitely lean towards favoring the home owner rather than the criminal.

An Army soldier, identified only as Sgt. Lim, who was arrested on charges of killing five fellow soldiers in a shooting rampage in June, leaves a military court in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Oct. 23, 2014, after trial. Lim claimed he committed the rampage after being ostracized for years. (Yonhap)

It seems like this guy needs to see a psychologist instead of going to prison:

A man is to face jail time for sexually harassing a call service operator working for a telemarketing company.

The man, identified as Park, age 49, had initially requested to be connected to a specific line, when the operator explained such services could not be provided.

Park then started lashing out at the operator in foul language, using words “objectifying women,” according to Yonhap News Agency.

He was reported to have called 9,982 times since May last year, using offensive speech.

Various other workers at the telemarketing company also said they felt “humiliated.”

The Seoul Central Criminal Court sentenced Park to 18 months in prison after finding him guilty of sexual violence and work disturbance on Oct. 15.

He is sentence also included 80 hours of mandatory participation in a program on sexual violence.  [Korea Times]

To me it is amazing that a guy that did not commit a violent act was convicted of sexual violence and sentenced to 18 months in prison just because he used offensive speech over the telephone.