Category: crime & punishment

I am not sure what authorities the Defense Security Command had, but if they were conducting illegal surveillance than people should be held accountable:

A special military probe team has indicted four senior uniformed officers, including two general-grade ones, for their alleged role in the illicit surveillance of family members of victims in a 2014 ferry disaster, investigators said Tuesday.

The team wrapped up its monthslong inquiry into the allegations that officials of the now-defunct Defense Security Command (DSC) monitored the victims’ families to minimize the political impact of the tragic incident that laid bare the government’s ineptitude in crisis management.

Investigators indicted and detained a major general, a brigadier general and a colonel for issuing directives for the purported surveillance. Another colonel was also indicted without detention on the same charges.

The ferry Sewol sank in waters off the country’s southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, 2014, leaving more than 300 passengers dead or missing. The bereaved families’ criticism of the government’s response to the disaster worsened public sentiment against the then-Park Geun-hye administration.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration has already “reformed” the Defense Security Command:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2018/08/south-korean-committee-claims-they-want-to-reform-defense-security-command/

Here is another one of these incidents where there is likely more to the story and both sides at fault, but radicals from each side will manipulate facts to push their agendas:

A recent assault case involving three men and two women at a bar near Isu Subway Station in Seoul — better known as the “Isu Station assault” case — has triggered an unexpected gender war online, after the women said they were attacked by men for their feminist choices, while others accused them of fabricating the account.

More than 350,000 Koreans signed an online petition asking for the presidential office to punish the three men after one of the two women claimed online that she and her sister were physically attacked for “not wearing makeup” and “having short hair.”

The woman, who is in her early 20s, said she deliberately chose the look — no makeup with short hair — as part of the “escape the corset” movement, a Korean feminist movement that rejects makeup and the rigid standards of beauty imposed particularly on young women in Korean society.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

It seems pretty creepy for someone to wear the jacket of someone that was just killed and then continue to wear it even while being investigated and arrested:

The police said on Saturday that one of four middle-school students arrested in the death of a classmate Friday had worn the victim’s jacket at the time of the arrest and throughout the police investigation.

Four teenagers were booked on charges of causing death from bodily injuries after the other boy fell from the roof of a 15-story apartment building on Tuesday afternoon.

The Incheon Yeonsu Police Station confirmed that the jacket one of the suspects wore to court on Friday belonged to the victim. “The boy was wearing the jacket when we arrested him, and he has not been able to change as he has been under detention since then,” the police said.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

More contracting fraud directed towards USFK:

Three South Korean companies have agreed to plead guilty and pay some $236 million in criminal and civil penalties for a “decade-long bid rigging conspiracy” involving contracts to supply fuel to U.S. military bases on the peninsula, the Justice Department said.

The companies — SK Energy Co. Ltd., GS Caltex Corp., and Hanjin Transportation Co. Ltd. — also agreed to pay a total of about $154 million to the United States for antitrust and false claims violations in separate civil claims, according to a statement.

The Justice Department said the criminal charges were the first to be announced in the investigation, which involved allegations that the petroleum and refinery companies and their agents conspired “to suppress and eliminate competition” during the bidding process for contracts from 2005 to 2016.

“Such a conspiracy is no less illegal for being hatched in South Korea, and as this case shows, federal law enforcement authorities can bridge the distance,” said Benjamin Glassman, U.S. attorney of the southern district of Ohio.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but does anyone think this is the only big rigging going on for USFK contracts?

I have been dubious of the viral Go Fund Me campaign for a homeless veteran that raised $400,000 last year and thus did not promote it on this site.  Sure enough it was a fraud:

Mr Bobbitt and the couple first came to prominence in November 2017 when Ms McClure launched a crowdfunding GoFundMe campaign, which, they said, was to re-pay the debt of a homeless man who came to her aid at the side of a road.

A photograph of Ms McClure and Mr Bobbitt, a veteran and drug addict who had lived on the streets for several years, standing on the side of the road, fronted the fundraising campaign.

More than 14,000 people donated, many inspired by the story’s details, such as Mr Bobbitt instructing Ms McClure to lock her car doors before he returned with a can of petrol.

Officials said on Thursday they believe the photo was staged after the three met previously when Ms McClure and Mr D’Amico visited a casino near an underpass where Mr Bobbitt spent time.  [BBC]

You can read the rest at the link, but they would have gotten away with this fraud if it wasn’t for the fact that Bobbitt sued McClure and D’Amico for more money than what they had given him.  This caused an investigation which led to the discovery of the fraud.

This fraud is exactly why I have never given any money to Go Fund Me and I am very particular on where I donate my money to.  I recommend everyone else should do so as well.

I have been saying this for quite some time now, expect every petty USFK crime to now receive attention from the Korean media:

Two United States Forces Korea soldiers were caught stealing clothes from a shop in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, police said Saturday.

They entered the shop at 11 p.m. Friday, and fled with a jacket priced at 60,000 won ($54), according to Gwangju Dongbu Police Station. Officers, called by the shop’s manager, traced the two and apprehended them.

The two suspects, from an air base in Gyeonggi Province, remained tight-lipped, refusing to answer questions from investigators.

Police are reviewing CCTV footage to help them in their investigation.  [Korea Times]

This is not something that should make national news, but like we saw during the 2000-2008 timeframe every USFK petty crime made the news to help create the perception of out of control GI crime.  It was common for Koreans to think USFK personnel could commit crimes and fly away back to the US.  This caused protests and demands for SOFA revisions.

I long ago showed the problems with the anti-US activists complaints about the US-ROK SOFA and I am still awaiting for one person to point out an example of a crime committed by a GI off duty and the USFK refused to hand him over?  The anti-US activists keep complaining about GI’s getting away with crimes and can’t point out a specific example of when this happened.

This is a lot of people to get rolled up all at once for drug crimes:

Two sailors are already heading to court-martial for using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley.

Another 10 sailors with the Japan-based ship were administratively disciplined on LSD-related charges, Keiley said.

A 15th sailor was also disciplined, but that person was not assigned to the carrier’s reactor department.

Hypocracy under the Moon administration. The anti-US arsonists who set fire 2 times to the MacArthur statue found not guilty. The 1st time, there was not even an investigation. But Taegukki (SK flag) rally person knocking down an illegal, politically-used Sewol tower gets jailed. https://t.co/Mg2TWer0D2

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 29, 2018

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.