Credit Fraud Pits Media Against Police

Heavy tensions are in the air between police and the media over an incident where a store in the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) committed card fraud by earning cash by changing the details so that it would seem that expensive materials were purchased with a credit card.

MBC, which first reported the incident, said, “Profits of the card fraud were used as activity funds for the heads of the police.” The police required 900 million won to MBC in compensation and launched investigations.

In the midst of these incidents, KBS announced through its documentary program Media Focus on May 27 that “MBC fabricated its interviews,” altering the course of the incident to new quarters.

MBC Report Fabricated-

KBS announced that after analyzing the voices of the two people in MBC’s report that they were the same person.

Through its main news program News Desk on October 23 last year, MBC changed the voices and broadcast the statements of six witnesses, including Lee, a broker for card fraud, and police employees. But according to voice analyses commissioned by the police to the National Institute of Science Investigations, Lee and a police officer were found to be the same person.

A professional institution where KBS commissioned for voice analysis also judged that Lee and an employee were the same person. KBS also introduced the views of the police that the person stating himself as an employee described the police as “them,” increasing suspicion that he was not actually part of the police force.

On this point, KBS stated that the MBC reporter said, “Lee and the employee are the same person, and he is a police officer who committed the card fraud, as was discovered during investigations,” later changing his words to, “the person described himself as a police officer, and we believed it.”

Who is correct?-

MBC explained through a phone interview with the Dong-A Ilbo that “we were mistaken in changing the voices so that one person was duplicated into two,” but added, “the report itself is not mistaken.”

The SMPA launched investigations after the report and announced that Won, the owner of an electronics store in the SMPA commercial facilities, collaborated with Lee, a card fraud broker, and falsely listed 150 million won from May 2004 to October 2005, earning approximately six million won in profits.

The police added that “we are accumulating the entire earnings from the store after July 2003, so it is not true that the money was funded for activities by high ranking police officials.”

The police suspect that the man interviewed by the MBC reporter is not Lee or a police agent, but Kim (47), who made the report with the directions of a certain person.

The police view that Kim made a false report to MBC with malicious intensions after an incident last July in which two people including Yoo, who falsely submitted a written document that “Kim of SMPA gave 50 million won each to the head of the police forces, the head of the SMPA, and the director of accountants at the SMPA in order to secure his advancement,” was arrested on charges of libel.

Bad relations between MBC and the police?-

The police have judged that the card fraud incident is related to an incident last August where the Seoul Metropolitan investigation unit took two people into custody, including the head of news department of MBC, due to charges that MBC was lobbied by A and reported accordingly.

The MBC acted swiftly by issuing an apology last August and firing three employees, but the police took them into custody. But the prosecution did not bring an indictment against them due to the lack of evidence.

Jae-Myoung Lee Jin-Yeong Lee egija@donga.com ecolee@donga.com