November 23. According to South Korea’s Nucis News Agency, on November 20, Kim Sung-tae, a former Freedom Korea Party (now National Forces Party) member who was found not guilty in the first instance for his children’s illegal entry into a large company, was arrested.
The Seoul High Court sentenced the sentence to 1 year imprisonment, suspended for 2 years.
The former chairman of Korea Telecom Corporation (KT Group) Lee Suk-chae, who was handed over to trial on suspicion of business obstruction, was also sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison, with a two-year reprieve.
It is reported that Kim Sung-tae’s daughter was hired as a contract worker by a subsidiary of the Korean Telecom’s Operation Support Office in April 2011, and was hired as a full-time employee in the second half of October 2012 through the Korean Telecom’s open recruitment of college students.
However, Jin Chengtai’s daughter never submitted an application for joining the company, nor did she participate in the corporate adaptability test. As a result, she was still transferred to a regular employee, which did not comply with the normal recruitment process.
In the first-instance verdict, Jin Chengtai was found not guilty. The court gave an explanation that Li Xicai did not prove that he had bribed Jin Chengtai. Therefore, the bribery part of Jin Chengtai could not be proved to be a fact, so he was not guilty.
The court of second instance stated that Jin Chengtai took advantage of his position to provide assistance to Li Xicai during the 2012 National Political Supervision by the Environmental Labor Committee of the National Assembly; in return, Li Xicai provided employment opportunities for Jin Chengtai’s daughter.
The fact that Kim Sung Tae’s daughter was hired as a regular employee is no different from Kim Sung Tae’s acceptance of bribes. Therefore, the second instance overturned the innocence verdict of the first instance and sentenced Jin Chengtai to 1 year imprisonment with a two-year suspension of execution; Li Xicai’s imprisonment for 1 year and 6 months with a two-year suspension.
