Confirmed 3-Year Prison Sentence for Seller of 'Fake COVID-19 Lists'... Appeal Withdrawal Submitted

Prison Sentence of 3 Years Confirmed for Personal Data Dealer Handling Millions
Named 'Corona List' in DB and Sold on Telegram

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyung-min, Song Seung-yoon, Lee Jung-yoon] A seller who circulated millions of records under the name "Corona List" in a database (DB) containing personal information has had a 3-year prison sentence finalized after withdrawing an appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to the Supreme Court on the 16th, Mr. A (28), who was prosecuted for violating the Personal Information Protection Act, submitted a withdrawal of appeal to the Supreme Court earlier this month. Since the prosecution did not appeal, Mr. A's 3-year prison sentence from the second trial was confirmed as is.

Previously, Mr. A was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison and fined 78.69 million won in the first trial. Dissatisfied with this, he appealed, but the second trial handed down a heavier sentence of 3 years in prison. The fine of about 78 million won was also maintained. Mr. A submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court after the second trial, intending to receive the Supreme Court's judgment, but suddenly withdrew the appeal. The specific reason for the withdrawal has not been disclosed.

The second trial court explained the sentencing reason, stating, "The amount of personal information secretly traded by the defendant over about 1 year and 4 months is enormous, the proceeds obtained from the crime are considerable, and the criminal proceeds were used for entertainment expenses, showing very poor criminal nature. The defendant repeatedly committed various forms of crimes without any sign of remorse or willingness to comply with the law, making it impossible to find any intention of reform, and the risk of recidivism appears very high."

Mr. A was arrested and indicted in January for selling a DB containing personal information such as names and phone numbers of unspecified many people through the messenger Telegram from August 2019 to December last year. (Refer to the November 20, 2020 article '[Exclusive] "Selling Corona List"... 2 million personal information records circulated')

It was confirmed that Mr. A received the DB from an unidentified person, arbitrarily edited it by entering body temperatures, and named it the Corona List. He recruited buyers through social networking services (SNS) and was investigated to have sold a total of about 4.6 million personal information records.

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