Supreme Court Confirms Prison Sentence for Broker Who Extorted 1.3 Billion Won from Baekhyeon-dong Developer

Approached as a pretext to cover up investigation
Supreme Court upholds original verdict

A broker who extorted over 1.3 billion won from Jeong Ba-ul, chairman of Asia Developer, under the pretext of quashing an investigation related to development corruption in Baekhyeon-dong, has been sentenced to prison.

According to the legal community on the 4th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) dismissed the appeal of Lee Dong-gyu, the actual operator of KH Real Estate Brokerage Corporation, who was indicted for bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, thereby upholding the original court ruling that sentenced Lee to 3 years in prison and a fine of 1,336,160,000 won.

Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul.

The court stated the reason for dismissing the appeal, saying, "There is no error in the original court's judgment for failing to conduct necessary investigations, violating the rules of logic and experience, exceeding the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misunderstanding the legal principles regarding the establishment of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and the calculation of the fine."

Lee was arrested and indicted last November on charges of receiving over 1.3 billion won in five installments from Chairman Jeong between May 2022 and June last year, under the pretext of quashing an investigation into preferential treatment allegations related to the Baekhyeon-dong development.

Investigations revealed that Lee told Chairman Jeong things like, "I will use my connections with political figures and former high-ranking lawyers to influence investigative agencies and quash the investigation related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project," and "I will leverage former lawyers and others to exert influence on the police. It must be resolved at the police stage, and lobbying must be done at the higher levels of the police," thereby extorting money from Chairman Jeong.

At the time, Chairman Jeong was under investigation for receiving preferential treatment by making illicit requests to Seongnam City while constructing apartments on the site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Baekhyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam City, including having the land use upgraded by four levels and allowing the construction of 'retaining wall apartments.'

In the first trial, Lee was found guilty and sentenced to 4 years in prison with a fine of 1,336,160,000 won.

The court at that time pointed out regarding sentencing, "The defendant blatantly received large sums of money over more than a year under various pretexts such as 'expenses to quash the investigation,' 'money needed to exert influence on the police investigation team and the prosecution conducting the investigation,' 'funds and expenses for lobbying the higher-ups in the police,' 'a portion of the 1 billion won needed to talk to the Minister of Justice or the Prosecutor General,' and 'cash to give to the warrant judge who could prevent detention with a 1% chance and with whom he recently played golf,' showing typical behavior of a 'legal broker' or 'political broker.'"

Additionally, the court stated, "Although it is unclear whether the defendant actually made illicit requests, it is difficult to reduce the illegality simply because the defendant did not proceed with such requests."

The court also considered Lee's past multiple criminal convictions as an unfavorable factor in sentencing.

The appellate court also found Lee guilty but accepted his claim of excessive sentencing and reduced the sentence to 3 years in prison.

The appellate court stated, "The defendant admits all the facts of this case and appears to be reflecting on his wrongful actions. The defendant's family and acquaintances have petitioned for leniency, indicating clear social ties."

It continued, "Considering all sentencing factors revealed during the trial, including the defendant's age, character, environment, family relationships, motive and circumstances of the crime, means and results, post-crime situation, and the statutory penalty for bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, the sentence imposed by the original court is somewhat heavy and unjust."

The Supreme Court also found no problem with the appellate court's judgment.

Meanwhile, the prosecution also indicted the so-called former lawyers introduced by Lee to Chairman Jeong to quash the investigation. Lawyer Lim Jeong-hyeok, a former high prosecutor, was sentenced to 2 years in prison with a 3-year probation, and lawyer Kwak Jeong-gi, a former police superintendent, was fined 10 million won in the first trial and has appealed, currently undergoing the second trial.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Chairman Jeong, both implicated in the Baekhyeon-dong development corruption allegations, have also been indicted and are undergoing first trial proceedings. Kim In-seop, a broker who was the former head of Lee's election campaign headquarters and involved in the case, was found guilty by the Supreme Court on the 28th of last month and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

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