'Bribery and Offering' Former Seongnam Mayor Eun Soo-mi Sentenced to 2 Years in First Trial, Appeals

Former Seongnam Mayor Eun Soo-mi, indicted on charges of bribery and abuse of power [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Former Seongnam Mayor Eun Sumi, who was sentenced to prison and detained in court in the first trial for charges including granting improper requests by police officers in exchange for receiving investigation materials related to her political funds law violation case under police investigation, has appealed.

According to the legal community on the 20th, former Mayor Eun submitted an appeal to the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 11 (Chief Judge Shin Jinwoo), the first trial court handling charges including bribery giving and receiving, abuse of authority, and violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.

Former Mayor Eun was sentenced on the 16th to 2 years in prison and fined 10 million won. A confiscation order of 4.67 million won was also issued. Park Mo, former policy advisor to Eun, who was jointly indicted on bribery charges, was sentenced to 4 months in prison, and Kim Mo, former executive secretary to Eun, indicted for violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, was sentenced to 6 months in prison with 2 years probation and a confiscation of 5.5 million won.

The court at the time stated, "The defendant received improper requests from the police officer in charge to gain investigative convenience related to a criminal case directly linked to maintaining the mayoral position through the policy advisor, and approved the crimes committed in the process of providing benefits such as private contracts and personnel matters," adding, "Despite being the mayor responsible for overseeing and directing city administration and affiliated public officials, the defendant participated in the crime for personal gain, seriously undermining the fairness of public contracts."

The court further said, "Nevertheless, the defendant did not reflect on her crimes and denied all charges for unreasonable reasons," and "She shifted responsibility by claiming that her subordinates committed the acts for personal gain, making severe punishment inevitable."

Earlier, former Mayor Eun was prosecuted for conspiring with her closest aide Park to grant improper requests to police officer Kim Mo of the Seongnam Jungwon Police Station, who was investigating her case in October 2018, in exchange for receiving investigation secrets. There are also charges of granting personnel requests for another police officer who was Kim’s superior and receiving cash worth 4.67 million won and wine from the policy advisor.

The court found most of former Mayor Eun’s charges guilty, including the request to assign a specific company to a tunnel streetlight replacement project worth about 450 million won in exchange for receiving investigation materials from Kim, and granting personnel promotions to two acquaintances as administrative officers and assigning them team leader positions.

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