Former Hana Bank President Kim Jong-jun Acquitted of Hiring Corruption by Supreme Court

Former Hana Bank CEO Kim Jong-jun, who was prosecuted for instructing 'gender-discriminatory hiring' during the recruitment process of new employees, was acquitted by the Supreme Court. Although it is true that unfair discriminatory hiring occurred, the court ruled that Kim’s involvement could not be acknowledged.

On the 14th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) dismissed the prosecutor's appeal in the final trial of former CEO Kim, who was prosecuted for violating the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation, thereby upholding the lower court’s acquittal. The court stated, "There is no error in the second trial’s judgment regarding the establishment of joint principal offenders."

Kim was prosecuted on charges of approving a report from the then HR director during the second half of 2013 Hana Bank’s open recruitment process for new employees, which stated that "there is a shortage of male employees, so it is necessary to hire mainly male new employees." The prosecution claimed, "Kim conspired explicitly and implicitly, and the HR director instructed HR staff to discriminate in selection by setting a predetermined 4:1 ratio of male to female applicants for each stage, including document screening and interviews." The final approval document stated that among the 123 successful candidates, 104 would be male and 19 female (female pass rate 15.4%), and Kim approved this.

The first and second trial courts acquitted Kim. The first trial court said, "This open recruitment was based on typical stereotypes about the roles of men and women and constitutes discriminatory hiring under the Equal Employment Act," but added, "There is no evidence that Kim knew the specific process or means of discriminatory hiring." It also noted, "This hiring method had been ongoing for at least 10 years. The practice of setting gender ratios in advance and applying discriminatory criteria was an internal HR department custom," and "It is difficult to see that decisions by bank presidents, whose terms last only a few years, influenced this." The second trial court also stated, "As the bank president, he only received reports on the expected number of hires before the open recruitment and approved or instructed accordingly," adding, "The authority over hiring was effectively left to the discretion of the HR director. It cannot be concluded that Kim received detailed reports on the discriminatory hiring plan or approved and instructed the plan knowing the specifics." The Supreme Court agreed with the lower courts’ judgment.

Meanwhile, the former HR director of Hana Bank was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation and fined 2 million won by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The succeeding HR director received eight months in prison with a two-year probation and a fine of 1 million won, and two former HR team leaders were fined 10 million won each. Hana Bank as a corporation was fined 7 million won. They were prosecuted for creating and managing a 'VIP list' during the 2013?2016 new employee recruitment process and giving preferential treatment to applicants related to senior bank executives or from specific schools. They were also charged with setting the female applicant pass rate in advance and hiring mainly males. Ham Young-joo, chairman of Hana Financial Group, who succeeded Kim as Hana Bank CEO and was prosecuted for obstruction of business and violation of the Equal Employment Act regarding the same matter, was acquitted in the first trial, and the prosecution appealed, with the second trial ongoing. The prosecution requested a sentence of three years in prison and a fine of 5 million won for Chairman Ham. The sentencing for Ham’s appeal trial is scheduled for the 19th of next month.

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