Ex-Police Officer Sentenced to 5 Years for Embezzling 60 Million Won as Favor for Acquaintance's Investigation

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] A former police officer who was indicted for receiving tens of millions of won in bribes in exchange for facilitating an investigation for an acquaintance was sentenced to a heavy punishment in the first trial.

According to the legal community on the 27th, the 22nd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Yang Cheolhan) sentenced former police officer A, who was tried for bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, to 5 years in prison and a fine of 60 million won. B, who was also indicted for giving bribes to A, was sentenced to 2 years in prison with a 3-year probation. The court stated as the reason for sentencing A that "he severely damaged public trust in the fairness and incorruptibility of police investigations and the execution of duties, which is highly condemnable."

A, who was serving as a police lieutenant at a police station in Seoul in August 2019, was indicted for facilitating an investigation for acquaintance B, who was under investigation at the police station he belonged to, by asking the officers in charge and receiving six 10 million won denomination checks as payment in February of the following year. At that time, B was under police investigation for installing recording devices and GPS trackers on her husband's residence and vehicle to collect evidence of infidelity submitted in a divorce lawsuit. During this process, A was investigated for asking his juniors and the officers in charge of the case to "handle it well because I know B well" or for coordinating the attendance dates.

In court, A claimed that "at B's request, I received six 10 million won denomination cashier's checks, exchanged them for cash, and then returned the money." However, the court did not accept this, citing that A asked those involved in the check exchange to give false statements during the investigation. The court criticized, "Considering that A asked related parties for false testimony and tried to conceal physical evidence to cover up his crime, severe punishment is inevitable."

The court also pointed out regarding B that "the act of giving a large sum of money to A with specific expectations about the progress and disposition of the criminal case damages the fairness of police officers' execution of duties and social trust in them, which is a serious offense." However, the court took into account that "B was actually sued while trying to confirm her husband's infidelity during the divorce process and committed the crime in a mentally difficult state."

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