Kim Hong-up Sentenced 3 Years and 6 Months in Prison

The Criminal Division 22 of the Seoul District Court, which consists of three judges, sentenced on Nov. 1st Kim Hong-up, the second son of President Kim Dae Jung, to 3 and a half years in prison, and fined him \500 million (approximately $420,000), along with an order to confiscate his assets up to \560 million. Hong-up was arrested on various charges including tax evasion and bribery in conspiracy with his henchmen.

The criminal division also rendered severe punishments to Hong-up`s henchmen. The court entered a 5-year imprisonment and \1.86 billion worth of confiscation for Kim Sung-hwan; for Lee Guh-sung, 2 years and 6 months in prison, along with \1.2 billion confiscation; and for Yoo Jin-gul, 2 years in prison and \550 million worth of confiscation.

The court, however, did not find guilty on the count of a bribery charge regarding \740 million, holding, "No conspiracy is found on this count." The prosecution indicted Hong-up and Sung-hwan for conspiring to take \740 million from Lee Jae-kwan, then vice-chairman of former Seahan Group in return for Hong-up`s promise to pull the strings concerning a pending investigation on Lee.

The division held, "This Court has found that the defendant [Hong-up] took bribes from numerous corporations for handling various matters in their favor, taking advantage of his power stemming from his special status as a son of the incumbent president. In addition, after given huge amount of money, he did not report it in his tax return, thereby evading taxes. Therefore, the law warrants a harsh punishment on him."

The court added, "[But] this Court considered in entering punishments the following mitigating circumstances: that Hong-up`s co-defendants, not the defendant himself, initiated all the criminal acts; that the defendant did not exactly know of the amount received; and that the defendant, therefore, did not exercise a substantial control over the money."

On the other hand, both of Hong-up and the DA`s office filed their appeals on Nov. 1st. Hong-up was originally indicted without bail in July on charges of bribery and tax evasion. Allegedly, he has received from corporations such as Hyundai and Samsung \2.58 billion in exchange of special favors and \2.2 billion as kickbacks. But, he did not pay any tax on the money received.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com