"'Insider Whistleblowing Hoax' Mastermind Cleared of Charges, Daegu Food Industry Reacts 'Unbelievable'"

Former Food Company Executive Sparks 'Suspicions of Reusing Returned Products'
All Employees Who Submitted False Data Confess "We Were Exploited"
Controversy Over Demanding Money from Company CEO After False Reports to Media

Members of the Samhwa Food Workers' Union and others holding a rally in front of Daegu Seongseo Police Station on the 11th, condemning the 'lenient investigation'.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Dong-wook] The 'return product recycling suspicion' case involving Daegu-based soy sauce manufacturer Samhwa Food has continued for over three months since the police investigation began at the end of February, despite employees' successive declarations of conscience revealing it as an 'internal whistleblowing fabrication' orchestrated by a former executive's meticulous plan.

Meanwhile, the police have closed most of the charges against executive A, who was identified as the mastermind behind the incident, leading to strong backlash from not only the company but also labor union members in the Daegu food industry, who are calling it a 'lenient investigation.'

According to the Daegu-Gyeongbuk branch of the Korean Federation of Trade Unions' National Food Industry Union on the 11th, the Seongseo Police Station in Daegu closed the case on the 10th with a 'no charges' decision regarding the attempted extortion accusation against former Samhwa Food manager A. However, the police forwarded the case to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment only on the charge of A allegedly handing over the company president's and CEO's resident registration numbers and digital certificate passwords to a third party (violation of the Personal Information Protection Act).

The core issue of this accusation is whether A, known as the whistleblower who reported the 'return product recycling suspicion' at Samhwa Food to a certain media outlet in February, called the company president's wife to demand a large sum of money after the problem escalated following the police investigation. A was also recorded saying something to the effect of "If I don't handle this, it will be reported on other broadcasts." This phone recording was submitted to the police as evidence.

The company's union chairman and other union members testified during police investigations or in joint statements that A played the role of a de facto field operations commander during the union's preparatory phase, manipulating them from behind the scenes.

However, about a month after receiving the company's complaint, the Seongseo Police Station in Daegu, which first summoned A in early May, dismissed all their testimonies and evidence.

Regarding this, on the 10th, the police explained to the company's lawyer over the phone that "Initially, after listening to the recording, we thought prosecution was possible, but it felt like a natural conversation. Considering the overall context, it was not judged as a threat or a specific demand for money," as the reason for closing the case without charges.

In response, the company's lawyer Park Jong-sik countered, "A is a planned criminal who gathered fabricated materials by mobilizing employees who followed him in January, reported them to the media, and then demanded money from the company president's wife, saying things like 'What could have been stopped with 100 million won now amounts to hundreds of billions.'"

In particular, A denied during the police investigation that he had demanded money first, claiming that "the company president's wife handed over bundles of 50,000 won bills (at a specific location)." Regarding this, the president's wife's driver, who went to the agreed location at the time, testified in a police confrontation and polygraph test that no money was handed over, but the police did not accept this testimony either.

In this regard, a representative of the Korean Federation of Trade Unions Daegu branch said, "I don't know how to understand the police's actions, which excluded all submitted evidence and witness statements regarding a person who used union establishment as a pretext for media play and consistent lies to fill his own pockets," emphasizing, "More than 500 workers from the Seongseo Industrial Complex have signed a petition asking the police to punish A, who deceived the union members."

In response, the head of the Criminal Division at Seongseo Police Station explained, "Calling the company's lawyer was a general procedure to notify the case closure, and it is difficult to explain the case details one by one separately."

Meanwhile, Samhwa Food, boasting a 67-year history and holding 85% of the soy sauce market in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region, is facing the risk of closure after its annual sales (42 billion won) plummeted by more than 80% following unverified claims at the end of January that "expired soy sauce and doenjang are mixed with new products to make finished products."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.