Category: crime & punishment

I wonder how many times these cops have pulled off successfully this tactic without getting caught?:

A police inspector standing trial over an alleged unlawful arrest was found to have lured a suspect who had voluntarily arrived at a police station to a nearby subway station, arrested him there and falsely claimed in official documents that he had been “found by chance.” The suspect was held in illegal detention for more than 10 days. Prosecutors on July 14 indicted the 40-year-old inspector, identified by his surname Woo, from the Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station without detention on charges including abuse of authority through an unlawful arrest and falsifying arrest records.

According to the indictment, a suspect in a special theft case contacted Inspector Woo at about 1:16 p.m. on May 22, saying he had arrived at the first floor of the Yeongdeungpo Police Station’s main building. The suspect had called Woo the previous day at around 5 p.m. and told him he would appear by 1 p.m. But Woo and two junior officers from his team had already been waiting near a subway station for about an hour, starting around 12:30 p.m., to carry out an emergency arrest.

After receiving the message that the suspect had arrived at the police station, Woo instructed him to walk toward a nearby subway station. The suspect followed the instruction and encountered police officers on the way. He was arrested at a nearby cafe at around 1:30 p.m., just 14 minutes after arriving at the police station. Prosecutors said Woo’s instruction was intended to create a false account of events suggesting that the suspect had been unexpectedly encountered in public.

Donga Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The hits just keep coming for the PPP:

A Seoul court convicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol of election law violations Monday, putting the main opposition party at risk of returning nearly 40 billion won (US$27.3 million) that was reimbursed in campaign expenses for the 2022 presidential election.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, after finding him guilty of making false statements as the People Power Party (PPP)’s presidential candidate ahead of the election in March 2022.

If the verdict is finalized through appeals, the PPP will be forced to return the 39.7 billion won it was reimbursed in campaign expenses by the election watchdog after Yoon’s victory in the 2022 election.

Yonhap

Here is what election law violations were he was convicted of:

Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team earlier indicted Yoon on suspicion of falsely claiming during a December 2021 press event that he had never introduced a lawyer to a former tax official.

Yoon was also charged for lying in a January 2022 interview when he said a party official had introduced him to shaman Jeon Seong-bae and denied meeting Jeon together with his wife, Kim Keon Hee.

The court found Yoon guilty on both charges, accepting the special counsel’s argument that Yoon had in fact introduced the lawyer to the former tax official and had met Jeon through his wife’s introduction.

“The nature of the offense is very grave as false information was publicized on a matter that drew great voter interest,” the court said.

Some I doubt voters really cared about either interview, but if the standard is that politicians should be jailed for lying in interviews it seems there should be a lot more special counsels being initiated to investigate. By the way could you imagine how many politicians would be prosecuted if the U.S. had a similar law?

It seems trying to use an ear piece to cheat would be challenging without also have a camera to relay what is on the test? If the person had to speak to relay what is on the test that would be highly suspicious. No wonder they got caught:

Police said Tuesday they have apprehended about 10 people suspected of either taking the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) on behalf of others for money or using advanced equipment, such as tiny earpieces, to relay answers to test-takers.

Most of them are Chinese nationals based in China who are believed to have promoted cheating on TOPIK through Chinese social media, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA).

TOPIK is a language proficiency test for foreigners whose native language is not Korean.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is definitely a danger of publicly trying to predict stocks, that someone will blame you personally for losses:

A man in his 20s was arrested by police in Busan on suspicion of attacking a stock investment YouTuber with a weapon. Investigations revealed he harbored resentment after suffering losses from investments he made based solely on the YouTuber’s advice.

The Busan Nambu Police Station announced on the 14th that it had detained a man in his 20s, identified as Mr. A, on charges of attempted murder.

Mr. A is accused of stabbing a man in his 40s, identified as Mr. B, multiple times with a weapon around 8:09 a.m. on the 13th at a commercial building in Busan’s Nam District before fleeing the scene.

Mr. B was reportedly a stock investment YouTuber. Mr. A, a subscriber to Mr. B’s YouTube channel, allegedly acted on revenge after incurring significant losses from investments made solely based on Mr. B’s recommendations.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of someone trying to use smart glasses to cheat on a test:

South Korean prosecutors have summarily indicted a man in his 40s for using AI-powered glasses to cheat on a national qualification exam, marking the country’s first legal action involving the devices.

The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office indicted the man last month on charges of violating the National Technical Qualification Act, local media outlets reported Monday.

He was caught in May while taking a fire protection facilities engineer certification exam in Gwangju. An exam supervisor reportedly became suspicious after noticing light reflected on the lenses of his glasses.

During the investigation, the man admitted cheating and said he had developed an AI application linked to the glasses and wanted to see whether the correct answers would be displayed properly.

Two other men in their 20s were booked after being caught using the same method at national technical qualification exam sites in Seoul and Mokpo that month.

AI glasses were also used in several TOEIC cheating cases, with two people caught in May and another in June.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but these are just examples of the people who were caught, how many unqualified people may have passed national testing before proctors caught on?

This criminal case is just totally bizarre, basically some woman keeps getting pregnant by some foreign guy and keeps convincing her Korean husband the kid is his. This guy appears to be the ultimate simp:

A Korean couple who abandoned two infants nearly two decades ago because they “looked like foreigners” received suspended prison sentences, according to legal circles Sunday.

The Uijeongbu District Court sentenced the mother to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the Child Welfare Act. Her husband was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for the same charge.

According to the court, the woman gave birth to her first child in 2005 while living with the man in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province.

The man, who believed throughout the pregnancy that he was the child’s biological father, realized after the birth that the baby was biracial. Concluding the child was not his, he decided to abandon the infant, and the mother complied.

The couple left the newborn on the doorstep of an orphanage in northern Gyeonggi Province less than a month after the birth.

The two reunited in 2008. The woman was pregnant with another child fathered by a foreign man, but the man once again believed he was the biological father.

After the couple legally married, the woman gave birth in a makeshift shed on a farm owned by the man’s parents. They raised the child for about a year.

As the child grew older, however, the man again realized the child was not biologically his.

Fearing confrontation, the woman fled in March 2009, leaving the child behind. The man subsequently abandoned the second child at the doorstep of the same orphanage.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This conviction makes me wonder if anyone has ever been convicted before for receiving a free opinion poll?:

This file composite photo shows former President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-kyun. (Yonhap)

A Seoul district court on Monday sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to two years in prison after finding him partially guilty of accepting illegal political funds in the form of free opinion polls from a self-proclaimed power broker.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted the jailed former president on charges of violating the Political Funds Act in a ruling that marked a departure from a separate trial where his wife was acquitted on the same charges.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team earlier indicted Yoon on charges of colluding with his wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, and receiving 58 opinion polls worth about 270 million won (US$180,100) in total for free from the power broker, Myung Tae-kyun, between April 2021 and March 2022.

In its ruling, the court recognized that Yoon had received 14 opinion polls from Myung for free over the period, sentencing him to prison and ordering a forfeiture of 13.96 million won.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible murder and cover up that has put the ruling party’s attempt to take investigation powers away from prosecutors at risk:

Acting National Police Agency Commissioner Yoo Jae-seong sits down for a meeting at the agency’s office in Seodaemun District, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

The murder of a high school student in Gwangjuand an alleged cover-up attempt by police have abruptly disrupted a policy push to strip prosecutors of all remaining investigative powers. The killing by Jang Yoon-gi, son of a police officer, has raised the question of whether Korea should press ahead with institutionalizing unchecked police power at the very moment its dangers have been laid bare.

A special investigation team under the National Police Agency probing the alleged misconduct in the investigation of the murder case visited the office of the Gwangju Metropolitan Police’s commissioner and other top command posts to collect evidence, expanding its inquiry to the police leadership.

This came after investigators named the chief of Gwangsan Police Station in the city, the leader of the violent crimes team and his members as criminal suspects. The team leader was arrested last week on charges including leaking official secrets and destroying evidence. Investigators are also probing Jang’s father — himself suspected of destroying key evidence — on suspicion of colluding with the local police investigation team.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

As I have long said the only way Yoon is getting out of jail is if another conservative becomes President and pardons him:

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a seven-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol for obstructing justice by blocking investigators from detaining him in the wake of his failed martial law bid in 2024.

The sentence was the top court’s first ruling for Yoon, who has been standing a total of eight trials in connection with his surprise declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. The main trial on charges of leading an insurrection has been ongoing at an appellate court after a lower court sentenced him to life in prison.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.