Former and current employees of CJ CheilJedang and Samyang Corporation accused of colluding on sugar and flour prices all received suspended prison sentences. CJ CheilJedang and the Samyang corporate entity were each fined 200 million won.
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 5 single-judge panel (Presiding Judge Ryu Ji-mi) on the 23rd held a sentencing hearing for 11 former and current employees of both companies, including a person surnamed Kim, former head of Korea foods at CJ CheilJedang, and a person surnamed Choi, former CEO of Samyang Corporation, who were indicted on charges of violating the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, as well as for CJ CheilJedang and Samyang Corporation, and issued these sentences.
The court sentenced a person surnamed Kim, former head of Korea foods at CJ CheilJedang, to two years and six months in prison and a fine of 100 million won, suspended for three years. A person surnamed Choi was also sentenced to two years and six months in prison and a fine of 100 million won, suspended for three years. A person surnamed Park at the same company was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 100 million won, and a person surnamed Song was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and a fine of 50 million won, with each sentence suspended for three years. A person surnamed Lee was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, and a person surnamed Ga was fined 10 million won.
A person surnamed Lee at Samyang Corporation was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine, with the sentence suspended for three years. A person surnamed Jeon and another person surnamed Lee were each sentenced to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years; a person surnamed Jang was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years; and a person surnamed Park was fined 10 million won.
The court said, "This case is a crime that distorted market order and is of poor quality," and noted, "CJ and Samyang had previously been investigated by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and benefited from the leniency program in connection with flour and sugar collusion cases, yet the same employees committed crimes again." It added, "Even if it is collusion in the transaction market, the harm can be passed on to end consumers, so the defendants' culpability is not light."
However, the court found it difficult to conclude that the defendants reaped excessive profits from the joint conduct in this case, given the structure in which international prices are disclosed, the price bargaining power of large end users, trends in raw sugar prices, and exchange rates. The court also reflected in sentencing that the defendants admitted and repented of the crimes, and that each company pledged efforts to prevent recurrence, such as strengthening compliance training and improving internal control systems.
The case began with allegations that the three sugar refiners—CJ CheilJedang, Samyang Corporation, and TS Corporation—coordinated in advance the magnitude and timing of sugar price increases and decreases applied to beverage and snack manufacturers and distributors from Feb. 2021 to Apr. 2025, and engaged in collusion a total of eight times.
Prosecutors assessed the scale of the collusion at 3.2715 trillion won and determined that during the collusion period, sugar prices rose by up to 66.7% compared with before. Prosecutors said the method was to raise sugar prices quickly when raw sugar prices rose and to narrow the extent of cuts when raw sugar prices fell. TS Corporation was excluded from criminal disposition due to application of the voluntary reporting leniency program.
At the sentencing recommendation hearing on the 9th, prosecutors sought three years in prison and a fine of 100 million won for a person surnamed Kim, former head of Korea foods at CJ CheilJedang, and two years and six months in prison and a fine of 70 million won for a person surnamed Choi, former CEO of Samyang Corporation. Prosecutors argued that sugar refiners, which oligopolize the domestic sugar market, colluded on sugar prices systematically for years, causing significant harm to ordinary consumers, and that despite having been punished for collusion in the past, the same type of crime was repeated.
Meanwhile, regarding the sentencing, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Fair Trade Investigation Department (Director General Na Hee-seok), when asked related questions at a briefing on the investigation results of the starch syrup price-fixing case held that morning, said, "We respect the first-instance ruling, but considering precedents in similar cases, the sentence does not resonate," adding, "All of this encourages continued collusion." The department added, "We need to review the written judgment, but we will of course appeal."
The ruling also draws attention as the first first-instance decision in a major collusion case since President Lee Jae-myung sharply criticized collusion in everyday prices. In Feb., Lee said, "There must be a perception that if you are caught taking unjust gains, you lose everything." This case was the "first case" related to collusion following Lee's remarks.
In legal circles, some say the decision could serve as a benchmark for gauging the direction of future investigations into collusion cases involving flour, starch syrup, and petroleum. In the flour collusion case, the heads and executives of six milling companies have been sent to trial, with the first hearing set for next month, and in the starch syrup collusion allegations, prosecutors indicted CJ CheilJedang, Daesang, Samyang, and Sajo CPK. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Fair Trade Investigation Department has also launched searches and seizures over allegations of "information-sharing collusion" involving the four refiners and the Korea Petroleum Association (KPA).