Prosecutors Uncover 160 Billion Won Supply Corruption in Artificial Turf Company Linked to Im Jong-sung's Bribery Case

The prosecution has uncovered a supply corruption scandal worth 160 billion won involving an artificial turf company accused of bribing former Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-seong.

On the 29th, the Criminal Division 6 of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Choi Soon-ho) announced that it had indicted two representatives and two employees of Company A on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud) and obstruction of official duties by deception.

According to the prosecution, the company is suspected of committing supply corruption amounting to approximately 166.5 billion won against the Public Procurement Service by submitting false test reports and inflating costs during the supply of artificial turf used in school playgrounds and local government sports facilities nationwide from 2018 to recently.

The defendants took advantage of the fact that products designated as excellent procurement goods by the Public Procurement Service had an advantage in procurement supply. They submitted false test reports for artificial turf, which had no physical samples and could not even undergo performance testing from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, to obtain performance certification, and registered a person with a disability as the nominal CEO to receive confirmation as a disabled-owned company.

They submitted to the Public Procurement Service the Ministry of SMEs and Startups performance certification, disabled-owned company confirmation, false test reports, and fabricated construction case photos to conceal the absence of physical samples, thereby obtaining designation as excellent procurement goods for artificial turf that was still in the development stage. Subsequently, they were able to enter into third-party unit price contracts with the Public Procurement Service and used forged transaction statements to inflate the manufacturing costs of the artificial turf.

The prosecution found that over approximately six years, they delivered supplies at unfair prices a total of 1,479 times (average 112 million won per case, up to 2.8 billion won), embezzling about 166.5 billion won, and that the unfair profits gained from cost inflation amounted to approximately 50.9 billion won.

A prosecution official stated, “We will work with the Public Procurement Service to fully recover the illegal profits obtained by the defendants and thoroughly confiscate the proceeds of crime. We will ensure that the defendants receive punishments commensurate with their crimes and will continue to strictly crack down on procurement corruption that adversely affects the national economy.”

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