Wi Seon-ho, former CEO of Shinhan Card, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, in the first trial of the 'employment corruption allegation' case concerning accusations of receiving favors and providing preferential treatment during the new employee recruitment process.
On the 13th, Judge Jeong Yeon-joo of the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former CEO Wi to 10 months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence for obstruction of business. Former Shinhan Card Vice President Lee Gi-bong, who was also indicted for involvement in fraudulent hiring, received a six-month prison sentence with a two-year suspended sentence. Earlier, prosecutors had sought a two-year prison sentence for former CEO Wi and a one-year sentence for the former vice president.
The court noted, "Some applicants were judged to have passed the selection process not through normal hiring procedures, but according to the personal decisions of former CEO Wi," and stated, "This undermined the fairness and trust of the hiring process and caused a sense of relative deprivation among many people."
Former CEO Wi and former Vice President Lee are accused of providing preferential treatment to eight applicants by receiving requests from executives of affiliated companies during the Shinhan Card new employee recruitment process from 2016 to 2017, and they were indicted without detention in January 2022. Prosecutors believe that former CEO Wi and others managed the eight individuals from whom requests were received separately and passed them through procedures such as document evaluations and first and second interviews, even though they were likely to fail. The prosecution determined that interview scores were manipulated during this process.
The court recognized guilt (obstruction of business) for the illegal involvement in the hiring process of four out of the eight applicants. The court stated, "Looking at the reports on these applicants, it does not appear that the practitioners judged that there were advantages to passing them in the hiring process," adding, "It seems that the opportunity for additional verification was provided not through regular assessments and the exchange of opinions among hiring practitioners but rather through the decision of former CEO Wi, who was a superior and the final decision-maker." However, the court explained that the fact that the four applicants recognized as guilty ultimately failed to pass influenced the sentencing.
The investigation into this case began when the Financial Supervisory Service detected signs of preferential hiring at Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, Shinhan Capital, and Shinhan Life in May 2018 and referred the matter to prosecutors.
In April 2018, the Financial Supervisory Service initiated an inspection related to recruitment linked to Shinhan Financial Group following reports received at the recruitment corruption reporting center, discovering a total of 22 cases of preferential treatment, including 12 from Shinhan Bank and four from Shinhan Card. In the case of Shinhan Card, it was investigated that children of executives from Shinhan Financial who did not meet the passing cut-off score managed to pass the document evaluation or were ultimately accepted. The Financial Supervisory Service handed the materials to prosecutors, and the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office began its investigation into Shinhan Bank before further investigating Shinhan Card.
Meanwhile, during the investigation, Jo Yong-byeong, former chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, was indicted without detention on charges of involvement in recruitment corruption during his tenure as the head of Shinhan Bank. However, he was acquitted by the Supreme Court in June 2022.