Two Seongnam City Hall Officials Given Suspended Sentences for Creating 'Single Female Employee List'

Document Received by Mayor's Secretary Revealed Through Whistleblowing

Two public officials who documented the personal information of about 150 unmarried female employees belonging to Seongnam City Hall in Gyeonggi Province were sentenced to probation.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Woo-seok] Two public officials who created documents containing personal information of unmarried female employees belonging to Seongnam City Hall in Gyeonggi Province were sentenced to probation.

The Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch Criminal Division 1 (Judge Im Hye-won) announced on the 27th that public official A of Seongnam City, who was indicted for violating the Personal Information Protection Act, was sentenced to 6 months in prison with 2 years probation, and B was sentenced to 1 year in prison with 3 years probation.

A, who worked in the Seongnam City Personnel Team in 2019, was indicted on charges of creating a document containing personal information such as photos, ages, affiliations, and ranks of about 150 unmarried female employees in their 30s belonging to the city, under the direction of senior official B from another department, and delivering it to then-mayor’s secretary C.

B was indicted on charges of ordering A to carry out this act.

This case was revealed when C, who received the document, reported it to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in August 2021. At that time, C exposed, "I received a document containing personal information of unmarried female employees aged 31 to 37 at Seongnam City Hall, which A created by viewing the personnel system," and added, "It was a sycophantic document intended to curry favor with me, an unmarried secretary working in the mayor’s secretariat, a core department of city power."

Police investigation found that most of the whistleblower’s claims were true. It was understood that A and others admitted the charges, stating that the document was created considering that the secretary was unmarried.

The court stated the sentencing reasons, saying, "A and others abused their official positions to use public officials’ personal information without permission, which is a serious offense," but also considered favorable circumstances such as "acknowledging the crime and showing remorse."

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