Court Sentences General Manager of Supporters' Association to Probation for Embezzlement of Sponsorship Funds from Eonnam High School Soccer Team

The general secretary of the support committee was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial for embezzling parental sponsorship fees in collusion with Jeong Jong-seon, the former president of the High School Football Federation and former soccer coach at Eonnam High School in Seocho-gu, Seoul.

The photo is unrelated to the article content. [Image source=Pixabay]

According to the legal community on the 4th, Judge Lee Hwan-gi of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 4 recently sentenced Park (52, female), who was indicted on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust in the course of duty, to three years in prison with a four-year suspension. She was also ordered to perform 160 hours of community service.

The court stated, "Park used seven personal accounts in addition to the school’s official account to collect and manage various types of sponsorship fees. She used the sponsorship fees personally without strict adherence to the limited designated purposes. Considering the scale and frequency of the crimes, there is significant blame to be placed."

However, the court also noted, "Park likely found it difficult to refuse the demands of former President Jeong, who wielded considerable influence over the soccer team students, which is a mitigating circumstance regarding the circumstances of the crime."

Park is accused of working as the general secretary of the Eonnam High School soccer team for about five years starting around 2015 and colluding with former President Jeong to pay approximately 103.6 million KRW of sponsorship fees toward Jeong’s personal utility bills and his children’s university tuition fees.

According to the prosecution, the Eonnam High School soccer team organized a "parental support committee" to collect sponsorship fees, and Park was in charge of managing these fees. The sponsorship fees consisted of a monthly regular fee of 1.3 million KRW and special fees such as tournament participation fees, training camp fees, and performance bonuses. The prosecution pointed out, "Parents could not raise objections to the demands of Park and former President Jeong for fear that their children would be disadvantaged in university admissions."

Park was also indicted on sole charges of using about 409.6 million KRW of sponsorship fees over 240 occasions to pay for her and her family’s loan principal and interest, credit card bills, and her husband’s business expenses. She is also accused of charging a total of 10.84 million KRW for personal fuel expenses and others using the school’s credit card.

Investigations revealed that Park even abused the fee exemption system intended for outstanding soccer players from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Although sponsorship fees were supposed to be paid directly by parents into the school’s account, Park is also accused of having some parents send their regular fees to her personal accounts and then embezzling those funds.

Park’s side argued, "All of the personal expenses of former President Jeong that were paid on his behalf at his request have been fully settled. Regarding the sole charges, Park initially used her personal funds due to a shortage of sponsorship fees and later reimbursed herself with sponsorship fees." However, the court found most of Park’s charges to be guilty.

Jeong Jong-seon, former president of the Korea High School Football Federation [Image source=Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, former President Jeong recently had his sentence of one year in prison with a two-year suspension confirmed by the Supreme Court on charges of embezzling public funds. The court judged that former President Jeong collected money from parents under various pretexts such as special lesson fees, winter training fees, snack fees, and freshman welcome fees, embezzling a significant portion of the funds, and that parents could not object to him as he controlled their children’s game participation rights and university admissions. Since his indictment, former President Jeong was permanently banned from the Korea Football Association in 2019.

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