Sogongyeon Union: "Evidence of Official Document Forgery Detected in Chairman Baedonguk's Membership Registration" (Comprehensive)

Claim of "Fundamental Invalidity of Sasilsi Chairman Qualification"

Status table of members of the Korea Video Culture Facility Industry Central Association distributed by the Secretariat Labor Union of the Small Business Federation on the 30th. Photo by Secretariat Labor Union of the Small Business Federation

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Controversy is expected as claims have emerged that Bae Dong-wook, chairman of the Federation of Small Business Owners (hereafter SoGongYeon), who is at the center of the ‘dance party workshop’ controversy, forged and manipulated official documents when joining SoGongYeon in 2015.

The SoGongYeon Secretariat Labor Union announced on the 30th that it has filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office against Chairman Bae, who caused a stir with the drinking and dancing workshop controversy, on charges of forgery of official documents and obstruction of business.

In a statement distributed that day, the SoGongYeon labor union said, “Chairman Bae is suspected of having falsified membership application documents when joining SoGongYeon in November 2015,” and added, “Based on this, he ran for chairman, making him a ‘fake chairman’ from the start.”

According to the union’s statement, in 2015, the Small and Medium Business Administration required submission of copies of business registration certificates and small business owner certification documents from at least 15 SoGongYeon member companies. In November of the same year, under the involvement of the Small and Medium Business Administration, integration of SoGongYeon was promoted, and in addition to the existing 32 member organizations that underwent membership review, new member companies were also screened to expand the scope. Several groups from the Federation of Vocational Economic Organizations applied for membership together, and the Korea Video Culture Facility Industry Central Association also submitted membership documents.

The SoGongYeon labor union claimed that after recently analyzing these materials internally, they found many cases where representatives and addresses matched in the membership lists submitted by some organizations. As of 2015, the Korea Video Culture Facility Industry Central Association submitted business registration certificates and small business owner certification documents for 18 member companies, and among them, there is evidence that 13 business registration certificates were forged using Photoshop or similar tools. The union also claimed that when they contacted the person listed as the Jeonnam branch president, they received a response saying, “I have never heard of the Korea Video Culture Facility Industry Central Association.”

The union stated, “Chairman Bae appears to have added a few names based on this bogus membership list to run in the recent chairman election,” and added, “The documents additionally submitted by Chairman Bae to the SoGongYeon Election Commission were taken away by him immediately after the election, raising suspicions that this part may be further tampered with.”

According to Article 2 of the Enforcement Rules of the Act on the Protection and Support of Small Business Owners, the qualification for regular membership in SoGongYeon is specified as ‘having branches in nine or more metropolitan local governments.’ Also, Article 24, Paragraph 1 of the Act on the Protection and Support of Small Business Owners states that ‘at least 90 percent of the members must be small business owners.’

If the labor union’s allegations of Chairman Bae’s forgery of official documents are proven true, his membership qualification in SoGongYeon could be fundamentally invalidated. The union argues that if Chairman Bae forged documents to join as a member and then ran for chairman, his candidacy itself would be null and void.

A Ministry of SMEs and Startups official said regarding the allegations, “Since on-site inspections and investigations of SoGongYeon are still ongoing, the results can only be known after the entire investigation is completed,” and added, “We are reviewing the entire matter within the scope prescribed by law.”

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