Former employees and executives 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 and executives of the two 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 delivered these sentences.
The court sentenced the 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. The 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 from the same company received two years in prison and a fine of 100 million won, and a person surnamed Song received one year and six months in prison and a fine of 50 million won, with both sentences suspended for three years. A person surnamed Lee received 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 prison term 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 received 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 the nature of the offense is not good," and added, "CJ and Samyang were investigated by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and received leniency in past flour and sugar collusion cases, yet the same employees committed crimes again." It continued, "Even if it is collusion in the transaction market, the defendants' culpability is not light in that the harm can be passed on to final consumers."
However, the court found it difficult to conclude that the defendants reaped excessive profits from the concerted action in this case, considering the structure in which international prices are disclosed, the price negotiation power of large end-user companies, the trend of raw sugar prices, and exchange rates. The court also reflected in the sentencing that the defendants admitted the crimes and expressed remorse, and that each company pledged efforts to prevent recurrences, such as strengthening compliance training and overhauling 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, carrying out collusion a total of eight times.
Prosecutors estimated the scale of the collusion at 327.15 billion won and judged that during the collusion period sugar prices rose by up to 66.7% compared with before. Prosecutors said that when raw sugar prices went up, sugar prices were raised quickly, and when raw sugar prices went down, the extent of the cuts was reduced. TS Corporation was excluded from criminal disposition through 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 the 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 the person surnamed Choi, former CEO of Samyang Corporation. Prosecutors argued that the sugar refiners, which oligopolize the domestic sugar market, colluded for years in an organized manner to fix sugar prices, causing significant harm to ordinary consumers, and that although they had been punished for collusion in the past, the same method of crime was repeated.
Meanwhile, regarding the sentences, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Fair Trade Investigation Department (Director General Na Hee-seok), when asked related questions at a briefing on the results of the investigation into the starch sugar price-fixing case held this morning, said, "We respect the first-trial ruling, but considering precedents in handling similar cases, the sentencing does not resonate," adding, "All of this encourages continuing 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-trial decision in a major collusion case since President Lee Jae-myung strongly criticized collusion in everyday prices. In Feb., the president said, "There must be a perception that if you are caught taking unjust gains, you will be ruined." This case was the "first case" related to collusion following the president's remarks.
In legal circles, there is also speculation that the decision could serve as a benchmark for gauging the direction of future investigations into collusion cases involving flour, starch sugar, and petroleum. In the flour collusion case, representatives and executives of six milling companies have been brought to trial, with the first hearing set for next month, and in the starch sugar collusion allegations, prosecutors have 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 the "information-sharing collusion" allegations involving the four oil refiners and the Korea Petroleum Association (KPA).