Category: crime & punishment

I think you can put this in the poor excuse department;

In an email arranging to hand off proprietary Navy information to the flamboyant contractor Leonard Francis, Navy Cmdr. Troy Amundson described himself as “a small dog just trying to get a bone.”

Later that night, Francis procured the services of several prostitutes from Mongolia for Amundson, prosecutors say, just one in a string of bribes that Francis paid for leaked military data.

On Friday, Amundson was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He joins the ranks of more than a dozen other Navy officials whose military service is now tarnished with felony records for getting cozy with Francis in what has become the worst corruption scandal to hit the Navy in decades.

Amundson, a decorated combat pilot, told the judge that, at the time, he didn’t realize what he was doing was illegal. The ship schedules laying out port visits in Southeast Asia that he passed on to Francis weren’t classified and were regularly given to contractors, his lawyers said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but like the judge in this case I find it hard to believe that this naval commander did not know accepting prostitutes in return for information was illegal.

Probably the most surprising thing I learned from this article is that only 2% of freight is inspected coming into South Korea:

South Korean police said Monday they have busted the largest-ever operation to smuggle drugs into the country, a scheme they say involves Taiwanese and Japanese organized crime rings and Korean dealers.

Six people were arrested in the attempted trafficking of 112 kilograms of methamphetamine, an amount that is enough to be used simultaneously by 3.7 million people, according to police. It is estimated to be worth 370 billion won (US$326.56 million).

Among those arrested were a 25-year-old Taiwanese, a 32-year-old Japanese and a 63-year-old South Korean.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the Taiwanese obtained a screw making machine on a ship at a port in the southeastern coastal city of Busan, which departed from Bangkok on July 6 this year. Concealed inside the machine were 112 bags packed with 1 kilogram of methamphetamine each.

The customs authorities failed to detect the smuggled drug as it was concealed inside the machine and sealed up by welding. Usually, it is almost impossible for the customs authorities to detect drug smuggling attempts at a port, the Korea Customs Service said.

The customs office conducts drug inspections on only 2 percent of freight sent into South Korea and lacks the time to do more. Sniffing dogs are of no use as methamphetamine has no color or smell, according to the office.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if only 2% of freight is inspected it seems smuggling drugs into South Korea is incredibly easy.  Additionally it seems it would be easy for someone to smuggle in imports from North Korea in violation of sanctions which has already happened this year.

The Sri Lankan man was arrested for the sky lantern that caused the oil tank fire in Goyang, but what about the personnel at the elementary school that originally lit the sky lanterns?  Shouldn’t they also be partially to blame for lighting sky lanterns that are an obvious fire hazard?:

The man was arrested on Monday.

He told police he lit the lantern out of curiosity after he discovered two lanterns which had landed at the construction site after a ceremony at a nearby elementary school on Saturday. A gust of wind blew the lantern away just after he lit the small fuel cell inside, the man said. He chased it towards the storage station but did not see the lantern land on the grass.

“He regrets his action a lot,” said Jang Jong-ik, the chief detective of the Goyang Police Precinct, who is investigating the case, on a CBS radio program on Wednesday.

According to Jang, the Sri Lankan man has been living in Korea for three years with his younger brother. He makes around 3 million won a month.

Police concluded Monday that the man was aware that the storage facility contained flammable material and arrested him on charges of misdemeanor arson. They requested a detention warrant for him on Monday, but the prosecution dismissed the request on Wednesday, stating there is a “lack of evidence on the cause and effect of the incident.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I think the largest blame should go whoever is responsible for safety at the oil storage facility.  Just imagine the damage North Korean saboteurs could do if a simple sky lantern can do this much damage.

Another political enemy of the Moon administration is getting additional jail time:

A Seoul court sentenced Kim Ki-choon, a former chief of staff to ousted President Park Geun-hye, to a 1 1/2-year prison term Friday for pressuring a major business lobby to provide funds to conservative organizations friendly to the Park administration.

The Seoul Central District Court also sentenced Cho Yoon-sun, a former culture minister and senior political affairs secretary to Park, to one year in prison, to be suspended for two years, for her role in having money funneled to pro-government organizations on the so-called whitelist.

Kim was put in jail following the verdict.

The sentences are in addition to prison terms of four and two years that Kim and Cho were given, respectively, in a separate “blacklist” scandal that centers on allegations that the Park government kept a secret register of artists critical of the administration and disadvantaged them in various ways.

The blacklist case is pending at the Supreme Court.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if anything comes back to haunt the Moon administration if conservatives regain power it is going to be this.  The Moon administration has its own blacklist where they have cut funding to organizations that advocate for North Korean human rights and resettle North Korean refugees.  Funding has also been cut to think tanks that won’t fire conservatives.

The biggest benefactor of the Moon administration’s white list has been the Kim regime in North Korea.  The Moon administration is even pressuring Samsung and other conglomerates to invest billions into North Korea.  If conservatives can go to jail for whilelists and blacklists then this sets a precedent for the Korean left to go to jail as well.

The Korean left has taken down another one of their boogeymen:

A Seoul court sentenced former President Lee Myung-bak to 15 years in jail for corruption Friday, making him the fourth ex-South Korean leader to be criminally convicted.

In the live televised trial, the court found the 76-year-old former leader guilty of bribery, embezzlement and other charges. He was ordered to pay 13 billion won (US$11.5 million) in fines and forfeit 8.2 billion won.

Lee, president from 2008-2013, was arrested on March 22 and indicted on April 9. Prosecutors demanded 20 years in prison on 16 counts of charges. The court convicted him of seven charges.

The court ruled that he embezzled 2.46 billion won from DAS, an auto parts company at the center of the scandal. It concluded, on the basis of testimony by Lee’s close aides, that he is the de facto owner of the company, disguising it as his brother’s company.

Lee denied the allegation he was the real owner of the company.

The court also ruled he accepted 5.9 billion won in bribes from Samsung Electronics Co. in the form of retaining fees for DAS.

Samsung paid the money seeking a presidential pardon for Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was jailed for tax evasion, it said.

Lee was also found guilty of receiving about 2.4 billion won in bribes from a financial company chief, a former intelligence agency chief and a former lawmaker.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but President Lee says the charges brought against him were political retaliation for the corruption investigation brought against former President Roh Moo-hyun during President Lee’s time in office.  Roh ended up committing suicide because of the investigation.  The Chief of Staff for President Roh was current President Moon Jae-in.

I don’t know if the allegations against Lee are true or not, but what I do know is that the Korean left is happy to put him in jail, while at the same time championing Kim Jong-un, the dictator responsible for killing and injuring dozens of Korean citizens and being a general threat to regional peace.  The Korean left even has Kim Jong-un’s image posted on the side of Seoul City Hall.

If Lee Myung-bak has been held responsible for his alleged crimes against Korea, then who is going to hold Kim Jong-un accountable for his crimes?  Obviously it will not be the Korean left.

Here is what unquestioning belief in any sexual harassment allegation has brought:

A growing number of Korean men fear being wrongfully accused of sexual harassment in crowded public places due to the new zero-tolerance policy for such offenses.

One woman posted an appeal on the Cheong Wa Dae website last Thursday claiming that her husband had been wrongfully accused of groping a woman in a busy restaurant and sentenced to six months behind bars.

Huh Yoon, an attorney, said, “In cases where the account of the victim is the only piece of evidence, courts have no choice but to take it into account.”

Last Saturday a group of men created a website seeking to help other men who have been wrongfully accused of sexual harassment. The website attracted more than 1,000 members in just four days. Some men said they make sure to put their hands in full view of others when they ride a crowded subway, while others keep their smartphones in their pockets so that they will not be suspected of taking upskirt pictures.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

If the autopsy shows the girl died from alcohol poisoning I would hope these two are charged with at least manslaughter:

An arrest warrant is being sought against two high schoolers on charges of allegedly raping a high school girl, Saturday, the police said. The girl was found dead afterwards.

According to the Yeonggwang Police in South Jeolla Province, two 17 year-old students surnamed Jung and Baek raped the victim, 16, in a motel room in Yeonggwang county on Thursday.

It was between 2:10 a.m and 4:15 a.m. when the two left the crime scene. The victim was later found dead by the owner of the motel who came in to clean up the room, around 4 p.m. that day.

According to the police, Jung and Baek had planned to commit sexual assault after they got the girl drunk in a “drinking game.” They had known the girl since childhood.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Life is continuing to imitate the Duffel Blog.  Via a reader tip here comes the latest example:

Col. Mark Eugene Muth, 57, assigned to the command surgeon general’s office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, was taken into custody Sept. 5 by Kettering Police for allegedly “causing a disturbance by shoving people in an attempt to get closer to the stage area,” according to the Dayton Daily News.

When the heavenly glow emanating from the legendary 1980s star simply became too much to bear, Muth reportedly charged ahead, perhaps in an effort to finally show the world that all those karaoke performances of “I’ll tumble for ya” had paid off.

This is something to keep in mind, in South Korea someone can accuse you of sexual harassment with no evidence and then demand money from you through the court system.  If you don’t pay you could go to jail:

She said her husband had attended several court hearings until September without telling her. The plaintiff demanded the defendant pay 10 million won for settlement but he refused, trusting the court would acquit him.

The court’s ruling statement from Sept. 5 says the plaintiff “explained in a coherent manner how the defendant sexually harassed her” and that “the accused was not regretful of his wrongdoing and didn’t seem to want to seek forgiveness from the accuser.”

“I know the recent ‘#Metoo movement’ has made all sexually related issues very sensitive but, even as a woman, I cannot understand her and how she so easily turned an innocent man into a sexual harasser,” the wife said, criticizing Korean anti-sex crime laws that “lopsidedly supported women over men.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is yet another example of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces having to release someone falsely convicted of rape:

In a split 3-2 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces tossed out the highly decorated commando’s 2014 court-martial conviction and barred the armed forces from ever trying him again.

The legal victory of Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Keith E. Barry — who never quit proclaiming his innocence — will ripple across the entire military.

Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Scott W. Stucky, a retired Air Force colonel, determined that not only can the military’s most senior attorneys be held responsible for bogus advice that helps to unlawfully coerce a prosecution but that Crawford “actually did so in this case.”