SeAH Besteel Corporation and Employees Fined in First Trial for Obstructing Fair Trade Commission Investigation

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[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] Steel company SeAH Besteel and its employee, who were prosecuted for obstructing an on-site investigation by the Fair Trade Commission, were sentenced to fines in the first trial.

On the 14th, Han Kyunghwan, presiding judge of the Criminal Division 2 at the Seoul Western District Court, announced that SeAH Besteel Corporation was fined 30 million KRW and employee Lim (49) was fined 10 million KRW for violating the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. Kang (54) and Ji (46), who were also indicted on the same charges, were acquitted.

The judge pointed out, "The act of hiding and destroying work notebooks and diaries provided by the defendant company constitutes obstruction of investigation," adding, "Defendant Lim claims that he destroyed the notebooks because they contained private records about his personnel, but it is reasonable to assume that work notebooks generally contain company-related work content, and destroying them just before the investigation into unfair joint conduct constitutes obstruction of investigation."

He continued, "If obstruction of investigation succeeds as a means to conceal unfair joint conduct, large fines and other penalties can be avoided, so strict sentencing is necessary."

However, the judge explained the sentencing reasoning by stating, "There is insufficient evidence to conclude that the defendant's actions concealed the company's collusion, and it is difficult to see that there was large-scale, organized hiding or destruction of materials."

Regarding Kang and Ji, the judge said, "It is suspected that they deleted group messenger conversations and formatted work PCs to obstruct the investigation," but added, "Based solely on the evidence submitted by the prosecution, it is difficult to conclude that work-related content was recorded."

Lim and the corporation were indicted for shredding work notebooks and diaries, hiding related documents, and obstructing the investigation when the Fair Trade Commission conducted an on-site visit in May 2020 to investigate possible collusion in steel scrap purchase prices.

Kang and Ji are accused of preventing the investigation by formatting group messengers and work computers around the same time.

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