‘Illegal Access to Competitor's Network’ Former bhc Chairman's Suspended Sentence Confirmed

Supreme Court Upholds Suspended Prison Sentence

Yonhap News

Former bhc chairman Park Hyun-jong, who was prosecuted for illegally accessing the internal computer network of chicken franchise competitor Genesis BBQ, has been sentenced to a suspended prison term.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) upheld the lower court's ruling on the 13th, sentencing Park to six months in prison with a two-year suspension for violating the Information and Communications Network Act (network intrusion, etc.) and the Personal Information Protection Act.

Park is accused of accessing BBQ's internal computer network on July 3, 2015, at bhc headquarters in Songpa-gu, Seoul, by stealing the IDs and passwords of two current and former BBQ employees. The prosecution believes Park committed the crime to obtain materials for an ongoing international arbitration lawsuit with BBQ.

During the trial, Park's defense denied the charges, claiming there was no intention to access BBQ's internal network and that no actual access occurred. However, both the first and second trials found him guilty of violating the Information and Communications Network Act and sentenced him to six months in prison with a two-year suspension.

The second trial court judged that "when Park received the IDs and passwords from the company's information team leader, he must have at least tacitly recognized that they might have been obtained illegally." However, the court acquitted him of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

Park served as vice president in charge of overseas business at BBQ before moving to bhc as chairman after BBQ sold bhc to a private equity fund in 2013. Global Gourmet Services, the holding company of bhc, dismissed Park in November 2023, citing management reform as the reason.

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