A former police executive who went on trial on charges of taking bribes worth about 700 million won saw her sentence sharply reduced on appeal. The case was the first that the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) initiated on its own and investigated. The CIO said it was "hard to accept."
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 3, presided over by Chief Judge Lee Seung-han, on the 25th sentenced former Senior Superintendent General Kim, who was indicted on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, to one year in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered a forfeiture of 110 million won.
Kim was indicted on charges of taking about 770 million won in bribes from a businessperson, identified as A, from June 2020 to Feb. 2023 after receiving a request to broker with the police in charge so that illegal funeral businesses, including tree-burial services, and criminal cases could be handled favorably.
Kim was found to have used A's credit card for more than 100 million won and received cash in return for the solicitation. Kim received most of the money by using bank accounts under the names of her older brother and an acquaintance, B.
In the first trial in Feb., the court sentenced Kim to 10 years in prison and took her into custody in the courtroom. It also imposed a fine of 1.6 billion won and ordered forfeiture of 750 million won. A was sentenced to three years in prison; Kim's older brother received three years, suspended for five years; and B received two years and six months, suspended for four years.
In the second trial, the key charge against the former senior superintendent general was overturned to not guilty, significantly reducing the sentence. Unlike the first trial, the appellate court found not guilty on the charge of receiving a 600 million won bribe wired by A to a borrowed-name account (bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes). The court found it was not proven that the account listed in the indictment was Kim's borrowed-name account.
The charge of violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act for receiving a credit card and electronic devices worth 110 million won from A was found guilty. However, the court held it was not proven that the items were received in return for a request to broker matters related to official duties, and found not guilty on the bribery charge.
The court said, "A may have had a vague expectation that being on good terms with the defendant would secure some help or avoid harm," but added, "A vague sense of expectation alone does not establish the crime of brokerage bribery."
In the second trial, the court dismissed the indictments against A and Kim's older brother, B. The court said the CIO, which investigated the case, does not have the authority to indict and maintain prosecution against ordinary people who are not high-ranking officials themselves or their family members, and therefore the indictments were invalid. It also found that some evidence was unlawfully collected because the subject's right to participate was not guaranteed when the CIO seized A's mobile phone.
The CIO began investigating after, while probing allegations that Kim took bribes from Daewoo Industrial Development Chairman Lee Sang-young in return for quashing a police investigation, it detected indications that Kim also received bribes from A.
After the sentencing, the CIO said it would "closely review the written judgment and decide whether to appeal." However, regarding the dismissal of the indictment against A, who was charged with giving bribes, it said, "It is hard to accept because the decision does not fully reflect the nature of the crime that bribery-taking and bribery-giving are necessarily co-offenses."
It then mentioned the bribery case of former Director General Prosecutor Kim Hyeong-jun (56, 25th Judicial Research and Training Institute class), the first indictment the CIO filed after its launch. Kim, who served as head of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office Joint Securities Crime Investigation Unit in 2015–2016, was brought to trial in Mar. 2022 on charges of accepting money and valuables in return for favoring attorney Park, surnamed, in an investigation into violations of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act. Attorney Park was also indicted on charges of offering bribes.
They were acquitted with finality by the Supreme Court in Apr. last year. The court did not find that attorney Park was outside the CIO's indictment targets.