A final Supreme Court ruling on the elder brother and his wife, who are accused of embezzling billions of won including appearance fees from broadcaster Park Soo-hong, will be issued today (26th). It is the result five years after the accusation.
On the 26th at 10:15 a.m., the Supreme Court will hold the sentencing hearing for Park Soo-hong's elder brother a person surnamed Park and his sister-in-law a person surnamed Lee, who were indicted on embezzlement and other charges under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes.
Park Soo-hong's elder brother and his wife are accused of managing Park Soo-hong's management exclusively and embezzling a total of 6.17 billion won from the corporations Lael and Mediaboom and Park Soo-hong's personal funds over 10 years from 2011 to 2021. However, Park Soo-hong's elder brother and his wife denied most of the embezzlement charges except for attorney hiring costs.
Prosecutors sought seven years in prison for Park Soo-hong's elder brother and three years for his sister-in-law at the first trial, but the court recognized only the elder brother's charges. The elder brother was sentenced to two years in prison, and the sister-in-law a person surnamed Lee was acquitted of all charges in the indictment.
At the second-trial hearing, which proceeded after appeals by both sides, Park Soo-hong again appeared as a witness and expressed his grievances. He said he wanted to testify because the factual findings were distorted and submitted a report from a tax agent who had observed the family's cash flow for the past 15 years. He then explained that the properties acquired in their names could never have been obtained without adding cash withdrawn from his personal accounts, calling them properties that could never have been acquired without embezzlement over four years.
Park Soo-hong also lamented, "They told me it was 'investment for you,' but from 2011 until the partnership ended in 2020 there were no properties in my name; all properties were owned 50% by the two of them. My ignorance was wrong, but when I opened the lid it was so horrific I wanted to die."
The second-trial court overturned the lower court and sentenced Park Soo-hong's elder brother a person surnamed Park to three years and six months in prison, and, judging there was a flight risk, issued an arrest warrant and detained him in court. The sister-in-law a person surnamed Lee, who had been acquitted at the first trial, was found partly guilty and sentenced to one year in prison, two years' probation and 120 hours of community service. Immediately after the verdict, the sister-in-law a person surnamed Lee left the courtroom in tears.
The court said, "This case involves a family company with a weak internal monitoring system and the nature of the victims, and it abused the trust of Park Soo-hong, who is the sibling, thereby going beyond infringing the property interests of the direct victims of embezzlement and breach of trust and disturbing the corporate system that should be operated soundly and the tax order that should be upheld. Furthermore, it resulted in significant financial and mental harm to the actual victim, Park Soo-hong."
It added, "Considering the egregiousness of the offense and the seriousness of the results, severe punishment commensurate with the culpability is unavoidable," and said, "The funds the defendants diverted from the victims appear to have been used to acquire personal assets such as real estate in the names of the Park couple to a considerable extent based on the cash flow."
The court also criticized their repayments, saying, "Partial repayment of damages cannot be accepted. Even if they repaid, the source of the funds is entirely Park Soo-hong's income, so the actual victim of the embezzlement and breach of trust is Park Soo-hong," and noted, "Park did not restore any damage to the actual victim Park Soo-hong up to the second trial and does not appear to have made any particular efforts to do so. Following the first trial, Park Soo-hong repeatedly petitioned for severe punishment against Park in the second trial as well."
After a notice of appeal was filed, the case went to the Supreme Court, and the legal dispute that began when Park Soo-hong sued his elder brother and his wife in April 2021 is expected to conclude about five years later.
[Photo] OSEN DB
[OSEN]