National Assembly Member's 'Split Donations' Involving Former KT CEO Koo Kyung-mo, Additional Fine of 3 Million Won

Court: "Considering status, guilt is not light... Taking into account it is not personal embezzlement"

Former KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo, who was sentenced to a fine of 7 million won in the first trial for participating in creating slush funds through the so-called ‘gift certificate fraud’ method and making split donations to members of the National Assembly, has been additionally sentenced to a fine of 3 million won.

Former KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo. / Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 11th, Judge Kim Han-cheol of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 17 sentenced former CEO Koo, who was indicted on charges of embezzlement, to a fine of 3 million won. Former and current KT executives who were also indicted received fines ranging from 2 million to 3 million won.

Judge Kim stated, "Former CEO Koo and others, at the request of employees in KT’s government relations department, the CR division, embezzled corporate funds by donating them as political funds to members of the National Assembly," adding, "Considering the defendants’ positions, their culpability is not light."

However, he explained the sentencing reasoning by saying, "The damage to KT caused by their crimes was fully recovered through the return of political funds by the lawmakers, and the crimes were not committed for personal enrichment, which were considered favorable circumstances."

Earlier, the prosecution indicted KT employees on charges of creating slush funds worth approximately 1.15 billion won by purchasing and reselling gift certificates from May 2014 to October 2017, and making split donations totaling 437.9 million won to 99 lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties of the 19th and 20th National Assembly sessions.

It was also investigated that 10 former and current KT executives participated in the crime by lending their names to the government relations executives in charge. Under former CEO Koo’s name, donations amounting to 14 million won were transferred to 13 lawmakers.

The prosecution separated the charges of violation of the Political Funds Act and embezzlement against former CEO Koo and others according to the Public Official Election Act and filed summary indictments for each. Former CEO Koo also requested a formal trial regarding the violation of the Political Funds Act and was sentenced to a fine of 7 million won in the first trial on July 1.

Former CEO Koo and others did not appear in court on this day. In formal trials held after objections to summary orders like this case, the defendant is not required to attend the sentencing.

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