When Did the Prosecution and Fair Trade Commission Become "Rivals"? [Chaotic Fair Trade Investigations] ②

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The decisive turning point that deepened the rift between the Fair Trade Commission and the prosecution was the 2018 "illegal re-employment (employment corruption) scandal involving senior officials of the Fair Trade Commission." At that time, the prosecution conducted an unprecedented raid on the Corporate Group Bureau of the Fair Trade Commission, which had symbolized chaebol reform. On the surface, it was about eradicating corruption; in reality, it served as a "warning" from the prosecution targeting the collusive relationships between former Fair Trade Commission officials and large corporations. The deep mistrust that began then became the basis for the Fair Trade Commission’s strong opposition during the early days of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, when the transition committee discussed introducing "special judicial police (special investigators)."

The prosecution’s pressure, now holding the "sword," continued on a practical level. In particular, during the tenure of Lee Jeongseop as head of the Fair Trade Investigation Department at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in 2023, the prosecution launched preemptive raids without waiting for reports from the Fair Trade Commission and actively exercised its "right to request complaints," effectively neutralizing the exclusive right to file complaints. Confusion arose during the investigation into collusion among furniture companies. Even though companies had completed first and second priority voluntary reports to the Fair Trade Commission, the prosecution, citing "criminal leniency" for the third-priority company, initiated a forced investigation and, in an unprecedented move, requested that the Fair Trade Commission file complaints against the first and second priority companies. As companies that had cooperated with the Fair Trade Commission became targets of the prosecution, many in the business community lamented, "Whose promises can we trust?" The prosecution further expanded its investigative front into general economic crimes such as embezzlement and breach of trust, maximizing judicial risks for companies.

Recently, the conflict appears to have entered a third round, triggered by last year’s so-called "public interest collusion" investigation. The prosecution is conducting an unprecedentedly rapid investigation into suspicions of sugar and starch syrup price collusion involving three major domestic sugar companies (CJ CheilJedang, Samyang Corporation, and Daehan Sugar), with the scale estimated to reach trillions of won. Before the Fair Trade Commission had even completed its administrative sanction procedures, such as determining fines down to the last won for calculating surcharges, the prosecution finished its forced investigation and proceeded with indictments in the second half of last year.

An official familiar with the inner workings of the Fair Trade Commission commented, "Both agencies have intensified their investigations in competition to prevent each other’s former officials from leveraging their lobbying power," adding, "This competition, born out of mutual distrust, has paradoxically produced a subtle system of checks and balances that fills investigative blind spots." However, the official pointed out that if new agencies such as the Serious Crime Investigation Agency join in, even this "antagonistic balance" could collapse, leaving companies facing the fear of unpredictable multiple investigations.

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