Feeding Garlic and Abandoning Chickens... The Bizarre and Abusive Yang Jin-ho Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

First Trial 7 Years · Second Trial 5 Years Followed by Supreme Court Upholding Original Verdict... Supreme Court "Facts Recognized"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] #. He forced a company employee to eat a handful of raw garlic just because he didn’t like the employee’s toast speech. He gave pills of unknown origin and forced them to be swallowed. He forced employees to eat hot sauce and pressured them to dye their hair. He made employees brutally strike live chickens with a Japanese sword and shoot them with arrows.

Yang Jin-ho, former chairman of Korea Future Technology, who committed power harassment, assault, and bizarre acts against employees, was finally sentenced to five years in prison by the Supreme Court. Previously, he was sentenced to seven years in the first trial and five years in the appellate trial.

On the 15th, the Supreme Court’s First Division (Presiding Justice Lee Heung-gu) upheld the appellate court’s five-year prison sentence for Yang, who was indicted while in custody on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes (joint injury) and the Animal Protection Act.

Yang is accused of forcibly making victim A swallow two unknown pills during a legal team meeting in April 2013. A reportedly suffered from stomach pain and diarrhea.

In June 2015, during a workshop with employees, Yang allegedly forced a staff member to eat a handful of raw garlic because he didn’t like the employee’s toast speech, saying, “It’s a drinking snack, so eat it all.”

He also forced about ten employees to eat hot sauce. The hot sauce Yang forced them to eat was reportedly the first-place product in a spicy food competition.

The bizarre acts did not stop there. He is also accused of animal cruelty, making employees brutally strike live chickens with a Japanese sword and shooting chickens with arrows. Additionally, he is charged with detaining and assaulting a university professor whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife. He was also indicted for spying on employees by installing a program on the company messenger that secretly monitored text messages on their mobile phones.

In the first trial, Yang was sentenced to seven years in prison. The court sentenced him to five years for charges before his December 2013 final conviction (1 year and 6 months imprisonment with 3 years probation for copyright law violation, etc.) and two years for charges after that.

However, the appellate court reduced his sentence to five years. While the appellate court recognized most of Yang’s charges, it dismissed the prosecution’s case on special rape due to insufficient evidence. The court stated regarding the special rape charge, “It is somewhat difficult to accept without reasonable doubt the fact that the victim was assaulted with the victim’s mobile phone and a broken sofa leg,” and “Since the victim did not file a complaint against Yang at the time, the crime requiring a complaint does not apply.”

On this day, the Supreme Court also accepted the facts and legal judgments of the lower court and dismissed Yang’s appeal.

Meanwhile, Yang was additionally indicted in July 2019 for leading illegal distribution of obscene materials through the “webhard cartel” and embezzling 16.7 billion won of company funds including proceeds from the sale of subsidiaries. The trial is currently ongoing.

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