A former senior police officer who got case parties to hire the law firm where he worked by touting his connections with an investigation team and offering to help them get a non-custodial investigation or scale back the probe was given a suspended prison sentence at the first trial.
On the 11th, the 11th Criminal Division of the Ulsan District Court (Presiding Judge Park Dong-gyu, Director General judge) sentenced A, a former police superintendent and law firm specialist who was indicted on charges including violating the Attorney‑at‑Law Act, to two years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, and ordered a forfeiture of 5 million won.
A was indicted on charges of promising non-custodial investigation and providing investigation information to two case parties who came under investigation by the Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency in June 2022 for alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and aiding and abetting gambling, and getting them to entrust the case to the law firm where A worked.
Prosecutors said A pretended to be able to use influence over the Ulsan police investigation team to narrow the case, leading the case parties to pay a total of 270 million won in retainers to the firm, and that A received part of that as a bonus.
In October the same year, A also faced charges of approaching the owner of a prostitution business caught in a crackdown and, saying A would help the owner evade the investigation net by putting up a figurehead, having 40 million won wired to the law firm where A worked.
During the trial, A's side argued it was a normal case intake process, but the court did not accept that.
The court found that the case parties paid money because they trusted A's police career and personal ties with incumbent officers more than the firm's attorneys. It cited as grounds that, in the case in question, the attorney did not perform any particular defense work for the case parties, and that when they were detained contrary to expectations, they demanded A return the money.
A was also found guilty of receiving 5 million won from case broker B under the pretext of "building ties" with incumbent police officers.
The court said, "It is recognized that the defendant agreed to ask an investigation team with whom the defendant had personal ties to scale down the investigation and had the law firm the defendant belonged to retained," adding, "This goes beyond the proper scope of activity as a law firm employee."
B, who was tried alongside A, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit 183 million won.
B was indicted on charges of providing expenses to A to build relationships with police officers and receiving about 190 million won from case parties under the pretext of requests to quash the investigation.
The court explained the sentencing, saying, "The defendants' crimes are serious offenses that undermine public trust in the fairness of the criminal justice system," and, "We took into account that the money provided by the case parties included actual attorney activity expenses, that the defendants were detained for about six to seven months, and that A served diligently as a police officer for 35 years."