Former Kumho Group Executive Sentenced to Prison Again in Appeal for Alleged Bribery of Fair Trade Commission Staff

A former executive of Kumho Asiana Group, who was prosecuted for giving money to a Fair Trade Commission employee to delete data unfavorable to the company, was sentenced to prison again in the appellate court.

Seoul Central District Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appeals Division 5-2 (Presiding Judges Kim Yong-jung, Kim Ji-sun, So Byung-jin) on the 6th sentenced Yoon, former Kumho Asiana Group executive director (51), who was detained and indicted on charges including obstruction of official duties by deception, to two years in prison, the same as the first trial.

Song, a former Fair Trade Commission employee (54), who was also indicted on charges of deleting data in exchange for money, was sentenced to one year in prison, reduced by six months due to some charges being acquitted. The fine of 10 million won and the confiscation of approximately 4.17 million won were maintained.

However, the court did not order their immediate detention in court considering that their detention period had already expired.

Yoon was prosecuted for requesting Song between 2014 and 2018 to delete some data unfavorable to the group from the materials submitted by the company to the Fair Trade Commission, and for providing money and entertainment worth about 4.178 million won as compensation.

The data deleted by Song reportedly included information unfavorable to Park Sam-gu, former chairman of Kumho Asiana Group, who was under criminal investigation at the time. Song is also accused of leaking the schedule of on-site inspections and crackdowns on the company to Yoon in advance.

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