Supreme Court Confirms Lee Jeong-geun's 4 Years and 2 Months Prison Sentence for Receiving Bribes Worth Billions

Former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, Lee Jeong-geun, who was accused of accepting bribes worth around 1 billion KRW, has been sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison.

The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice No Tae-ak) on the 28th dismissed both the prosecution's and Lee's appeals in the final hearing for Lee, who was indicted on charges of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and violations of the Political Funds Act. The court upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing him to 4 years and 2 months in prison and ordering the confiscation of approximately 900 million KRW.

Lee Jung-geun, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The court stated the reason for dismissing the appeal was that "there was no error in the lower court's judgment regarding the failure to conduct necessary hearings, violation of the rules of logic and experience, exceeding the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misunderstanding of legal principles related to the prohibition of disadvantageous changes, 'donation acts' under Article 45, Paragraph 1 of the Political Funds Act, and 'quid pro quo' in bribery under Article 3 of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes."

Lee was accused of receiving about 940 million KRW multiple times from businessman Park from December 2019 to January last year under the pretext of requests for government subsidy allocation, public institution supplies, and promotions of executives and employees.

He was also accused of receiving 330 million KRW several times from Park between February and April 2020 for the costs of the 21st National Assembly election campaign.

The first trial court sentenced Lee to 1 year and 6 months in prison for violating the Political Funds Act and 3 years for bribery. It also ordered the confiscation of about 980 million KRW.

Considering that some of the money was counted twice in the two charges against Lee, the court judged that Lee received about 1 billion KRW in bribes from Park.

The court pointed out, "Park's testimony regarding the source of cash, the defendant's requests for money and mediation, the process of giving and receiving money, and circumstances before and after the receipt are consistent with objective evidence," and added, "The defendant's claims contradict much of the evidence."

The appellate court increased the sentence for the Political Funds Act violation to 1 year and 8 months in prison. However, it acquitted Lee of some bribery charges and reduced the sentence to 2 years and 6 months. The confiscation amount was also lowered to about 890 million KRW.

The court stated, "The defendant received bribes worth less than about 1 billion KRW as a reward for mediating high-ranking public officials," and criticized, "He attempted to destroy evidence during the investigation and made claims contrary to objective evidence during the appeal trial, showing no sincere reflection. The nature of the crime is very serious considering the number of offenses and the amount involved."

During the investigation, the prosecution seized and analyzed Lee's mobile phone, revealing circumstances of money distribution ahead of the 2021 Democratic Party convention.

Subsequently, based on the so-called 'Lee Jeong-geun recordings,' the prosecution launched an investigation into the money envelope scandal at the Democratic Party convention. During the investigation, it was revealed that former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil received illegal political funds worth several hundred million KRW through an external support organization called the 'Peace and Livelihood Research Institute (Meoksayeon)' in violation of the Political Funds Act.

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