Twelve Legal Officials Involved in Bribery

Twelve high rank government officials, including four judges, four former judges, and two police executives, are now under investigation for having received bribes.

On July 13, the Seoul Central District Public Prosecutor’s Office reported they secured a statement from a related source that Kim Hong-su, 58, representative of a carpet importing company, who is now in jail, gave judges, prosecutors, and police executive officials money, goods, and treats worth multi million won.

Prosecutors summoned and investigated A, senior judge in Seoul Central District Public Prosecutor’s Office, for the fourth time on July 13, and recently investigated B, former prosecutor, and C, head of a police station in Seoul.

It is reported that B and C admitted they received 10 million won and 30 million won respectively.

Prosecutors are also inspecting documents seized through their search of Kim’s cell in Seoul Detention Center and his house, including Kim’s letters, petitions, pocketbooks, and related account books. Kim, who had made a close relationship with judges and prosecutors for the past ten years, was arrested and jailed in July of last year for his violation of the Attorney-at-Law Act.

Prosecutors suspect that about ten people, including three judges in local courts, Prosecutor D, two lawyers who served as senior prosecutors, a chief investigator, and an official in the Financial Supervisory Service, are involved in this bribery case.

Those under suspicion are all banned from leaving the country, and prosecutors are tracing bribery through their accounts and the accounts of those who worked with Kim. B’s letter of resignation was recently accepted, and C is now placed on the waiting list.

A source in the Prosecutor’s Office said, “We take this case seriously since 90 percent of the cases Kim bribed for seem to have ended in favor of him.”

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