A court acquitted all defendants, including former Seongnam Development Corporation planning chief Yu Dong-gyu, attorney Nam Wook, and accountant Jung Young-hak, who were implicated in allegations of preferential treatment in the Wirye new town development.
On the 28th, Director General Lee Chun-geun of the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 1 Single-Judge Panel acquitted five people, including former Deputy Minister Yu, attorney Nam, accountant Jung, former Seongnam Development Corporation development Head of Team Joo Ji-hyung, and Wirye Asset Management's major shareholder Jung Jae-chang, who were indicted on charges of violating the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Act.
The court found that internal information from Seongnam Development Corporation that was conveyed to private operators constituted a secret under the anti-corruption law. However, it determined that it was difficult to see, as charged, that the defendants used it to obtain specific dividends as property gains during the development process.
The point was that what they obtained by participating in the Wirye new town development project was project rights, not dividends that would occur years later.
The court said that under precedent, obtaining business-operator status by using a secret can be viewed as gaining a property benefit, but in the indictment in this case, business-operator status was not specified as a property benefit, so it would not rule on that separately. It therefore acquitted the defendants.
The core of the alleged Wirye new town development corruption is that during the 2013 push for the Wirye new town apartment development when President Lee Jae-myung was Seongnam mayor, internal information provided by former Deputy Minister Yu and former Head of Team Joo allowed attorney Nam, accountant Jung, and private operators including Jung to be selected as project developers and reap gains.
Because Seongnam Development Corporation officials and attorney Nam allegedly colluded to reap gains, the case was called a "carbon copy of Daejang-dong," similar to the Daejang-dong development corruption case.
According to the prosecution's investigation, total profits from the Wirye new town development project reached about 41.8 billion won. Of the 21.1 billion won taken by the private sector, 4.23 billion won was pocketed by attorney Nam and others, the prosecution judged. The remaining 16.9 billion won was found to have been taken by the builder Hoban Construction.
Accordingly, at the sentencing hearing on Nov. 28 last year, the prosecution sought a two-year prison term for former Deputy Minister Yu, and two years in prison and about 1.4 billion won in forfeiture for attorney Nam and accountant Jung. It sought one year in prison for former Head of Team Joo and two years and six months and 1.4 billion won in forfeiture for Jung, the major shareholder of Wirye Asset Management.
Meanwhile, former Deputy Minister Yu, attorney Nam, accountant Jung, and others were indicted on charges including breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes in connection with the Daejang-dong development project, and last Oct. were sentenced to prison in the first trial. Former Deputy Minister Yu was sentenced to eight years, attorney Nam to four years, and accountant Jung to five years. They appealed the first-instance rulings, but the prosecution did not appeal.