Prosecution Seeks 3-Year Sentence for Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo in Recruitment-Related Appeal Trial

The First Trial Resulted in a Not Guilty Verdict

The prosecution requested a 3-year prison sentence in the second trial as well as the first trial for Ham Young-joo, Chairman of Hana Financial Group, who is accused of intervening in the open recruitment process for new employees after receiving a favor request from an acquaintance.

On the 7th, at the final hearing of Ham's obstruction of business charges held by the Criminal Appeals Division 1 of the Seoul Western District Court (Presiding Judge Woo In-seong), the prosecution asked the court to sentence him to 3 years in prison and impose a fine of 5 million KRW. Additionally, a payment order of a 7 million KRW fine was issued to Hana Bank as a corporation.

Ham was indicted on charges of intervening in the document screening, group interviews, and executive interviews during the open recruitment of new employees from 2015 to the second half of 2016 after receiving favor requests from acquaintances, and manipulating the scores of applicants who failed. He is also accused of violating the Gender Equality Employment Act by pre-determining the male-to-female ratio of new employees from 2013 to 2016.

In March of last year, the first trial court acquitted Chairman Ham, citing lack of evidence that he ordered fraudulent recruitment and that discriminatory hiring was a customary practice unrelated to the bank president's decision-making. Regarding the charge of violating the Gender Equality Employment Act, the court explained, "The discriminatory hiring method appears to have been a customary and internal practice within the HR department for at least 10 years," and "there is no basis to believe he was aware of this customary method, nor was there any physical evidence."

However, former Vice Chairman Jang Ki-yong was sentenced to 6 months in prison with a 2-year probation, and Hana Bank as a corporation was fined 7 million KRW for violating the Gender Equality Employment Act. The court explained, "From the initial document screening stage, female applicants were significantly reduced," and "artificially setting the gender ratio is a traditional stereotype and clear discrimination." The prosecution and Hana Bank corporation filed appeals in March last year. The sentencing date is scheduled for October 19.

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