This article makes me wonder how many “white envelopes” are being passed to teachers in South Korea? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?:
A case involving the principal and two teachers of a private girls’ high school in Gwangju was sent to prosecutors on charges of fabricating the school records of 25 students in order to help them gain admission to good colleges, police said Wednesday.
The three educators are suspected to have either raised the test scores of 12 students in the 11th grade and 13 students in the 12th grade or lied about their extracurricular activities.
Authorities did not say exactly how many students were aware of the plot, but hinted that “several” must have known because they were called into the teacher’s office and specifically asked what details the teachers could add to their documents to make them look better.
Some parents were said to have paid each teacher about 2 million won ($1,828) for the service, said police. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I am a bit surprised by how cheap the bribe was.
The expansion of the anti-corruption law is clearly targeted at the unions and civic groups that are largely left leaning. With that said will these anti-corruption laws just make these groups instead focus on campaign contributions like what happens in the US to influence politicians?:
South Korea’s National Assembly in Seoul (Yonhap)
Lawmakers belonging to the ruling and opposition parties are generally in favor of expanding the anti-graft law to encompass the country’s labor unions and civic groups, a poll showed Sunday.
The survey carried out on lawmakers sitting on parliament’s National Policy Committee showed 10 supporting the expansion versus five who were opposed, with four saying they did not have a view on the matter.
The poll carried out by Yonhap News Agency shows awareness among lawmakers that the law can be revised down the line to make it more comprehensive and better reflect public calls to root out graft.
The Kim Young-ran anti-graft law, named after the former Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission chief, aims to tighten loopholes in existing anti-corruption rules under which public officials cannot be punished for accepting expensive gifts and services unless there is evidence of reciprocity.
The law passed by the National Assembly in March 2015 and set to go into effect on Sept. 28 subjects public officials, journalists and private school faculty to a maximum penalty of three years in prison or a fine of five times the amount they accept in money or valuables if they exceed 1 million won (US$896) in one lump sum or 3 million won in total annually, regardless of whether it is in exchange for favors or related to their work. The regulations make it illegal to accept meals exceeding 30,000 won, presents in excess of 50,000 won, and money for congratulations and condolences of over 100,000 won, and bars people in these occupations from from making improper solicitations.
“Although it may seem excessive by some because of the considerable influence civic groups and labor unions exert on society, it only makes sense that they are covered by the law,” a ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker said.
He pointed out that it makes no sense to include journalists and schoolteachers who are not public servants, while leaving out unionists and civic group members. [Yonhap]
It will be interesting to see what the reaction to this is going to be. It is difficult to lobby publicly against an anti-corruption law that is trying to end bribery.
The whole issue with the succession issues and now government raid of Lotte Group is playing out like a Korean television drama:
Investigators carry out confiscated documents after raiding the headquarters of the Seoul-based Lotte Group on June 10, 2016. (Yonhap)
Prosecutors raided the headquarters of South Korea’s retail giant Lotte Group, as well as its six affiliates, on Friday over allegations of embezzlement and malpractice.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it sent some 200 investigators to 17 places, including the group’s headquarters in central Seoul, its major affiliates and the homes of some executives.
Hotel Lotte Co., TV channel Lotte Homeshopping and its key retail unit Lotte Shopping Co. were all raided.
Prosecutors said they confiscated computer hard drives, accounting books and other documents in their asset transactions.
Travel bans have been put out for some of the company’s senior officials, according to prosecutors. Some of the executives are accused of making secret funds by exaggerating unit prices in contracts with their subcontractors.
Prosecutors also suspect the group created slush funds while making transactions between its affiliates.
“We could no longer postpone the raid as there have been tips that evidence was being destroyed,” a senior prosecutor said.
The conglomerate, which has sprawling businesses in both South Korea and Japan, has been riddled with a series of scandals from last year, including a high-profile fight between brothers for managerial control and the recent prosecutors’ probe into the group’s duty-free business unit.
Hotel Lotte Co., which has been preparing to list its shares later this month, postponed the proposed initial public offering (IPO) to next month as its senior officials have come under investigation over alleged bribery.
Prosecutors raided the hotel unit and the house of Shin Young-ja, the head of Lotte Foundation and daughter of group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, over the allegations last week.
The 74-year-old Shin and other company officials are suspected of receiving kickbacks from Jung Woon-ho, chief of the scandal-ridden cosmetics brand Nature Republic, in return for favorable space in Lotte’s duty-free shops. Both Shin and Hotel Lotte flatly denied the allegations. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if we see Mr. Shin show up in court in a wheel chair?
That is at least what a Seoul court ruled earlier this week in a bribery case involving two teachers in Seoul:
A Seoul court on Wednesday ruled in favor of two private school teachers who accepted money and gifts from the parents of their students.
The teachers, who work at Gyeseong Elementary School, were both charged with taking bribes but later acquitted by the Seoul Central District Court.
The ruling prompted an angry response from those in the education circle, with Kim Hyung-nam, the inspector of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, calling the decision “embarrassing.”
One of the teachers, surnamed Shin, 48, stood accused of taking cash, gift certificates and gifts worth a total of 4.6 million won ($3,930) from two parents over multiple occasions when he taught fourth-grade last year.
The other, surnamed Kim, 45, was accused of accepting 4 million won as well as valuables from one parent.
The court ruled Wednesday that while Shin had accepted the money and gifts, those actions did not amount to bribe-taking.
He was asked to do general favors for the students, the court said, but did not carry out unlawful favors in return for compensation. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
It just wouldn’t be a major construction project in Korea without a bribery scandal of some kind and USFK is not immune to this:
Police said Tuesday that they have raided SK Engineering & Construction Co. and its construction site on a U.S. base in central South Korea over slush fund allegations involving a U.S. military official.
The National Police Agency confiscated materials including account books and computer hard disks from the head office of SK E&C in Seoul and its work site at the U.S. Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
An SK E&C subcontractor allegedly stashed away about 1 billion won (US$890,000) and handed it over to a then USFK official in 2010, according to the official. The now-defunct subcontractor is headed by a former South Korean field officer.
The police have already obtained witness accounts from former employees of the subcontractor. They are currently investigating whether SK E&C was involved.
They have also sent investigators to the U.S. to ask U.S. law enforcement authorities for cooperation in searching for the former USFK official. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but $890,000 bribe has got to be one of the biggest bribery scandals in USFK history. That is a lot of money. If anyone is wondering, corruption involving USFK personnel is nothing new. What is important is that these people are caught and punished to discourage others from trying to pull off the same scams.
It is going to be hard for President Park to launch an anti-corruption campaign in the wake of the Sewol ferry boat tragedy when the people around her that are supposed to implement it are all taking bribes if the allegations are true:
Sung, the chairman of Keangnam Enterprises, died in an apparent suicide after leaving the list.
Although President Park ordered the prosecution to conduct a thorough investigation into the graft scandal, Sunday, Cheong Wa Dae has refrained from commenting on the issue.
In a bid to fight corruption, she vowed again Thursday that anyone who is found to be involved in any illicit activities will face the consequences without exception.
Park’s biggest political hurdle would appear to be the besieged prime minister, because Lee is leading the government’s ambitious anti-corruption campaign.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun, which interviewed Sung hours before his death, reported Tuesday that the businessman said he had given Lee 30 million won ($27,000) during the 2013 by-elections, when Lee ran for a parliamentary seat representing Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province.
Park has set her sights on fighting graft as part of strengthening her control because the April 16, 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which hit her administration hard, was blamed on collusive ties between ferry operators, regulators and politicians.
In addition, Park’s plans to reform the debt-heavy pension system for civil servants and the stiff labor market are also expected to hit a snag amid intensifying political attacks from opposition parties. The processing of economy-related bills pending before the National Assembly is also not on the cards in the short-term. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t understand why the Korean politicians don’t just legalize bribery and just call it campaign contributions like how the US political system works.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of the latest scandal to plague the Park administration:
Seen here is the memo found on April 9, 2015, inside the jacket pocket of Sung Wan-jong, former head of Keangnam Enterprises Ltd., who killed himself while facing an investigation related to the overseas resources diplomacy project. The memo listed eight high-ranking government officials and Park’s aides and amounts of money. (Yonhap)
The disclosure of a so-called “bribery list” left behind by an embattled businessman at the center of a snowballing corruption scandal before he committed suicide continued to put the government of President Park Geun-hye on edge Saturday.
Sung Wan-jong, head of Kyeangnam Enterprise Ltd., killed himself by hanging on Thursday, hours before he was to appear before a Seoul court set to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for him on various corruption charges.
A brief memo found in his trouser pocket dropped a bombshell in South Korean politics. Listed in the memo are the names of eight heavyweight politicians, all close confidants of Park, and won figures next to them, indicating that the money was delivered.
The eight politicians include Park’s two former chiefs of staff — Huh Tae-yeol and Kim Ki-choon — her current chief of staff, Lee Byung-kee, and Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo as well as Hong Moon-jong, a ruling party lawmaker who had served as the President’s campaign manager in 2012.
According to the local daily Kyunghyang, Sung said in an interview with it on Thursday right before committing suicide that he gave some 200 million won (US$182,000) in cash in to Hong and that he believes the money was used for Park’s election campaign.
“I don’t think he would have spent the money for himself. That was for the election,” he told Kyunghyang. The daily belatedly made public part of the phone interview. [Yonhap]
