'Bribery for Permits' Ruling: Ruling Confirmed for Ruling Party's Jeong Chan-min, 7 Years Imprisonment... Loss of Assembly Seat

Jeong Chan-min, a member of the People Power Party who was indicted on charges of accepting bribes through a third party by providing permit conveniences to a real estate development company during his tenure as mayor of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, has been sentenced to imprisonment, resulting in the loss of his parliamentary seat.

Jeong Chan-min, Member of the People Power Party [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Oh Kyung-mi) confirmed on the 18th the original court ruling sentencing Jeong to 7 years in prison, a fine of 500 million won, and partial confiscation of real estate for bribery charges under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.

According to the National Assembly Act and the Public Official Election Act, a member of the National Assembly who is sentenced to imprisonment or higher (including suspended sentences) loses their eligibility to be elected and thus loses their parliamentary seat.

Jeong was indicted on charges of allowing his older brother and acquaintances to acquire four land parcels within the business site at about 296 million won below market price in exchange for providing permit conveniences to developer A, who was developing townhouses in Yongin from 2016 to 2017 while Jeong was mayor of Yongin.

It was also investigated that A paid a total of 56 million won in acquisition and registration taxes for the land. The total amount of bribes calculated by the prosecution was 352 million won.

The first trial recognized all charges against Jeong and sentenced him to 7 years in prison and a fine of 500 million won. The appellate court maintained the same sentence while adding an order to confiscate the real estate.

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