Former CEO Ha Seong-yong of KAI Management Corruption Case Receives Suspended Sentence in Second Trial

Charges of Accounting Fraud Also Result in Acquittal in Second Trial

Ha Sung-yong, former CEO of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), who was prosecuted on charges of management corruption including accounting fraud worth hundreds of billions of won and hiring irregularities, was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the second trial following the first trial.

Former Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) CEO Ha Sung-yong, who was indicted on charges of accounting fraud, recruitment irregularities, and embezzlement, is leaving the courtroom after the appellate trial verdict at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 8th. Ha was sentenced to 2 years in prison with a 3-year probation. [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 8th, the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Baek Gang-jin, Kim Seon-hee, Lee In-su) sentenced former CEO Ha, who was indicted on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (embezzlement), to two years in prison with a three-year suspension. This sentence is slightly heavier than the first trial’s sentence of one year and six months in prison with a two-year suspension.

On this day, the court overturned the first trial’s acquittal and found him guilty of some obstruction of business acts, two cases of bribery, and embezzlement related to certain golf expenses.

Additionally, the court upheld the first trial’s guilty verdict regarding the charges that former CEO Ha personally used gift certificates worth 180 million won purchased with company funds and improperly intervened in the recruitment of new employees.

However, the court acquitted him of the core charge of accounting fraud worth 500 billion won. The court stated, “Even if the accounting treatment based on payment standards is retrospectively judged to violate accounting standards, the prosecutor’s evidence alone is insufficient to recognize that the defendants had intent for fraudulent accounting.”

Former CEO Ha was indicted in October 2017 on charges of involvement in various management corruption suspicions at KAI, including accounting fraud worth 500 billion won, embezzlement of company funds, and hiring irregularities, during his tenure as KAI CEO from May 2013 to July 2017.

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