Tag: fraud

It is amazing how far the Cho Kuk family has fallen for something likely many other Korean politicians and other in positions of power are guilty of as well:

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his daughter Cho Min have been facing criticism over their unrepentant attitude toward the high-profile corruption scandal involving their family. 

According to legal sources, Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court reprimanded Cho Kuk while sentencing him to two years in prison last Friday, saying he has never reflected on his wrongdoings.

The former minister, who was indicted in 2019, was found guilty of multiple charges, including using his influence to help his two children gain entry into universities and graduate schools. The court, however, did not immediately incarcerate him, citing escape was not a concern. 

“Cho Kuk has continued to argue against objective evidence even after he stood before this court,” the court said in its ruling. “He has continued to turn a blind eye to his wrongdoings and never reflected on them. Consequently, imposing harsh penalties on him is unavoidable.”

The court said the corruption involving his children’s school admission was contrary to social expectations and obligation as a renowned professor, and that it damaged justice in the country’s school admissions system. 

Cho Kuk was an outspoken liberal law professor at Seoul National University until he served under the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

On the same day, the court gave another year in prison to the former minister’s wife Chung Kyung-sim ― who is already serving a four-year sentence for academic fraud ― on related charges. 

Despite their parents’ conviction, Cho Min said she did not feel ashamed of herself at all, during an interview with left-leaning broadcaster Kim Ou-joon.

The interview, filmed Friday, the day her father was convicted, was aired on Monday through Kim’s YouTube channel. It marked the first time that Cho Min had shown her face since the corruption scandal involving the family made headlines in 2019. 

“Prosecutors, media and political circles were so harsh to my family for the past four years,” Cho Min said. 

The younger Cho passed the state exam to become a doctor and graduated from the medical school of Pusan National University (PNU) located in the southern port city of Busan in 2021.

But the medical school decided to revoke her admission in the same year following her mother’s conviction over forging her daughter’s academic records to gain entry to the school.

Cho Min has filed a lawsuit, requesting the court to cancel this decision, with trials still underway. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I can under why the daughter is unrepentant because she has a lot to lose if she doesn’t win her court case by not becoming a doctor.

This is the first time I have read of a direct accusation against Lee Jae-myung from someone directly involved with the Daejang-dong real estate investment scandal:

Lawyer Nam Wook, a key figure in the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal, is surrounded by reporters as he walks to his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

A key figure in the Daejang-dong corruption scandal said Monday he heard that Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung held a hidden stake through one of the investors in the project.  
   
Lawyer Nam Wook made the allegation at his trial on the Daejang-dong case at the Seoul Central District Court, hours after he was released from jail at midnight Sunday after his detention period expired. Nam is charged with breach of trust and bribery in the case.  
   
His case is believed by prosecutors to be part of a larger conspiracy concerning astronomical profits raked in by Hwacheon Daeyu, a previously obscure asset management company, and its Cheonhwa Dongin affiliates, from minuscule investments in a 2015 real estate development project in the Daejang-dong area of Seongnam, Gyeonggi, as well as suspicions about their true ownership. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This would make for a great Dog the Bounty Hunter episode hunting this guy down:

South Korean prosecutors said Sunday that Do Kwon, the wanted founder of Terraform Labs accused of fraud following the massive collapse of the firm’s cryptocurrencies in May, is “obviously on the run” and not cooperating with the investigation.

The remarks came in response to Kwon’s claim in a tweet that “I am not ‘on the run’ or anything similar — for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.”

On Saturday, Singapore police’s statement said the Terraform founder and CEO is no longer in Singapore.

The blockchain firm has been under investigation for alleged fraud and tax evasion after investors in its cryptocurrencies — TerraUSD and Luna — filed complaints against Kwon in May, accusing him of a Ponzi scheme over the loss of billions of won following the crash of both coins earlier that month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I thought the accusations against Lee Jae-myung’s wife would just go away after the election, but it appears investigators must have some really good evidence to go after her like this:

 The wife of former ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was grilled by police Tuesday about allegations related to her personal use of a provincial government corporate credit card years ago.

Kim Hye-kyung left the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency in Suwon, 50 kilometers south of Seoul, at about 6:50 p.m. after undergoing five hours of questioning, accompanied by her lawyer.

Upon emerging from the police agency, she was asked by reporters about whether she admitted to suspicions related to her corporate credit card use but did not reply.

Kim is accused of using a credit card of the Gyeonggi government for personal shopping and eating, while her husband was Gyeonggi governor from 2018-2021.

She is also suspected of forcing civil servants to run her personal errands, such as getting drug prescriptions, buying prescription drugs on her behalf and paying for meals at restaurants. 

Allegations of Kim’s corporate credit card misuse and other misconduct surfaced early this year ahead of the March 9 presidential election.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have no idea if Yoon’s mother-in-law is guilty of these accusations, but why did it take six years and when Yoon’s may be seeking the presidency for these charges to happen? I think this is arguably payback on Yoon for going after the corruption surrounding the former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his family:

A team of state prosecutors requested Monday that a local court sentence the mother-in-law of Yoon Seok-youl, a former top prosecutor, to three years in jail.

The 74-year-old, identified only by her surname Choi, is accused of violating the Medical Service Act in connection with her involvement in a nursing facility.

She illegally received about 2.29 billion won (US$20 million) from the National Health Insurance Service while running the nursing hospital in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, from 2013-2015 along with three business partners, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

There had to be more than just the Malaysian employee involved with this heist of money from this casino on Jeju Island. What did she do wheel out 300 kilogram of money on a dolly through the casino?:

A stash of W8.1 billion has been found in a secret safe at the Landing Casino in the Shinhwa World Marriott Resort on Jeju Island, where billions have gone missing (US$1=W1,097).

Police said Wednesday that the new stash was found in a safe in a secret vault in the casino from where another W14.5 billion in cash had vanished without a trace. 

The secret vault is not the casino’s ordinary safe where chips and gambling money are stored, but a 50 sq.m space containing dozens of safes of different sizes. 

Police discovered the new stash of money while raiding the secret vault after the casino filed a report accusing a female Malaysian executive of making off with the W14.5 billion in crisp W50,000 notes that would have weighed nearly 300 kg.

The 55-year-old woman disappeared last December and is suspected of absconding with the money on behalf of her boss, the troubled Hong Kong-based chairman of Landing International, Yang Zhihui.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link. but this money could still be stashed around Jeju with some of it already being found by police.

Another week and yet another case of Blue House corruption:

President Moon Jae-in on Friday ordered the ministries to investigate their affiliated agencies’ decision making that led many of them to make dubious investments in a private equity fund suspected of large-scale fraud.    

“Moon ordered the government ministries to conduct thorough investigations into the state-run institutions’ investments [in the Optimus Asset Management], separately from the ongoing probe by the prosecution,” said Kang Min-seok, spokesman of the Blue House.    

Moon gave the order following media reports on state-run institutions, including the Korea Communications Agency, making massive investments in Optimus products.    (……….)

It’s the second time Moon commented on the Optimus scandal. After media reports detailed a link between a former presidential aide and the Optimus scandal, suspicions emerged that the company had lobbied top politicians and officials to avoid an investigation. Moon responded Wednesday that the Blue House must cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation.    
   
Reports were also made that Interior Minister Chin Young was an investor at Optimus. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, Chin, his wife and son invested a total of 500 million won in Optimus funds in February. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but you would think with all the fraud and corruption going on people would be protesting for impeachment like what happened with former President Park Geun-hye.

Oh, that’s right the people can’t protest because they will be arrested.

The second son of Yoo Byung-eun, the owner of the company that ran the Chewol ferry that sunk 2014, has been captured by U.S. Marshals for extradition to South Korea. The law has finally caught up to him as well:

One of South Korea’s most notorious fugitives was arrested in the United States this week on​ embezzlement charges ​at home stemming from the 2014 sinking of a ferry that killed more than 300 people, many of them high school students.

Yoo Hyuk-kee, 48, was arrested Wednesday without incident at his home in Westchester County, New York, in response to an extradition request that South Korea submitted to the U.S., a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Yoo’s arrest ends ​a prolonged mystery over the whereabouts of the man South Korean investigators consider to be a central figure in the scandal surrounding the ferry’s sinking, which traumatized the nation. Prosecutors have said that rampant embezzlement by the Yoo family helped create unsafe conditions and practices on the Sewol ferry.

Yoo, also​ known by his English name, Keith Yoo, is a son of Yoo Byung-eun, whose family controlled the Chonghaejin Marine Company, the operator of the Sewol. The overloaded ferry capsized off the southwestern tip of South Korea in April 2014​ in the country’s worst disaster in decades.

New York Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but Yoo’s father committed suicide shortly after the sinking and his oldest brother has already completed two years in jail for fraud. If all of Yoo’s shady dealings are true, hopefully he will be spending a long time in jail as well.

The fraud accusations against left wing parliament member Yoon Mee-hyang, who used to run the Comfort Women charity, is only getting worse:

Then came the suicide of a Korean Council employee responsible for the operation of its shelter for the survivors.

The director of the shelter, known only by her surname Sohn, was found dead, pushing investigators to expand the scope of its probe.

Then came another layer of unexpected information. 

A granddaughter of Gil Won-ok, another survivor who had stayed at the shelter until recently, made a new accusation against Sohn, and Yoon, of money laundering. 

“The shelter’s director laundered money by taking an enormous amount of money from Grandma’s account and sending it to another account. I am sure people around her knew what she was doing,” the granddaughter wrote on the internet in reply to a news article on the director’s death. 

The prosecution summoned Gil’s son who stood partly by his daughter’s accusation. 

In a previous interview with a local news outlet, the son who Gil adopted demanded the shelter explain a big chunk of money withdrawn from her account three times ― in amounts of 4 million, 5 million and 20 million. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but with Sohn dead the only person that can answer what happened with the money is Yoon Mee-hyang. However, since Yoon is now a member of parliament she can ignore any summons from the prosecution for questioning. It appears she will be able to get away with all this with no outrage from the Korean left.