"Not a 'Fake Divorce,' Claims Jo Guk's Brother... Agreement Revealed Stating 'Must Comply If Marriage Is Demanded'"

Prosecutors Secure Agreement Indicating Jo's 'Fake Divorce' Scheme
False Claims on Woongdong Academy Construction Payment... Also Charged with Hiring Corruption

Cho Mo, younger brother of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk. /Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] It has been reported that the prosecution secured and submitted to the court a settlement agreement indicating that Mr. Jo, the younger brother of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, had a 'sham divorce' with his ex-spouse.

According to the legal community on the 2nd, the prosecution submitted the 'sham divorce agreement' between Mr. Jo and his ex-wife, obtained during the investigation, as evidence to the first and second trial courts. Earlier, on the 27th of last month, Mr. Jo was sentenced to three years in prison and taken into custody in court on charges including corruption in teacher recruitment at Ungdong Foundation and false construction payment lawsuits related to Ungdong Foundation.

Since their mutual divorce in April 2009, Mr. Jo and his ex-spouse have been suspected of having conducted a sham divorce to evade debts owed to a construction company and transferred assets to the ex-spouse. However, the family of former Minister Cho has repeatedly denied the 'sham divorce allegations.'

However, the settlement agreement secured by the prosecution reportedly includes a clause stating that "if Mr. Jo requests marriage at any time, the ex-spouse must comply."

The sham divorce of the younger brother and his spouse is related to the 'Ungdong Foundation lawsuit.' In 1996, the father of former Minister Cho, who was the chairman of Ungdong Foundation, commissioned a construction project worth approximately 1.6 billion KRW to Goryeo City Development, where Mr. Jo was the CEO.

At that time, they borrowed about 950 million KRW from Nonghyup Bank and Busan Bank to cover construction costs, with the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (Kibo) providing loan guarantees. However, Goryeo City Development went bankrupt, and Kibo, which had provided the guarantee, repaid the full bank loan.

During this process, suspicions arose that Mr. Jo, who was jointly liable for the debt repayment, conducted a sham divorce to evade the obligation and transferred assets to his ex-spouse. Although the wife was working as an airline flight attendant, she established a separate company and took over the claims.

At the time, Mr. Jo claimed, "I never had a sham divorce," stating that the divorce was by mutual consent due to financial problems and family discord, but this was eventually proven false. The appellate court that sentenced him guilty also judged that "they only reported a mutual divorce, but continued to maintain a substantial marital relationship afterwards."

Main gate of Ungdong Middle School.
Photo by Yonhap News

Meanwhile, the appellate court also revealed that the construction payment claims of Mr. Jo related to Ungdong Foundation were false.

The Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Park Yeon-ok) overturned the first trial's acquittal on charges of breach of duty on the 26th of last month during Mr. Jo's appeal trial, ruling him guilty of attempted breach of duty. The court pointed out that no actual construction took place and that Mr. Jo's company at the time in 1996 did not possess the construction technology or capability to proceed with the contract.

Additionally, it was fully acknowledged that Mr. Jo, who served as the secretary-general of Ungdong Foundation, accepted approximately 180 million KRW in bribes from two applicants during the recruitment process for full-time teachers at Ungdong Middle School in 2016 and 2017 and leaked exam questions.

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