▲ Ahn Dong-gun, the 1st Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, holds a briefing at the Seoul High Court press room in Seocho-gu on the 27th regarding the indictment and detention of customs officials who allegedly stole high-end wine from smuggled goods seized by customs, handed them over to a black-market broker, and received tens of millions of won in kickbacks in return.
Customs officials who allegedly stole high-end wines from smuggled goods seized by customs, handed them over to a black-market broker, and accepted tens of millions of won in illicit kickbacks in return have been indicted and detained.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (led by Acting Senior Prosecutor Park Hyang-chul of Criminal Division 1) announced today (the 27th) that it indicted and detained Seoul Customs officials A and B on the 24th on charges including violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes (bribery and mediation of bribery).
At the time, the suspects were officials assigned to the Seoul Customs Investigation Bureau, where their duties included gathering intelligence related to smuggling and overseeing investigations.
According to prosecutors, the two conspired to secretly steal high-end wines from smuggled goods, hand them over to a black-market broker, and pocket tens of millions of won in "handling fees" in exchange.
They attempted to exploit a institutional loophole where smuggled goods classified as food and beverage are disposed of without a separate public auction due to storage issues, planning to swap the wines using a bottle-switching method.
After finding a black-market broker to purchase the wine, official A and the other suspect received approximately 30 million won in cash and valuables in August 2023 under the pretext of helping lobby to steal the seized high-end wines.
After pocketing the lobbying funds, official A and the other suspect subsequently requested a prosecutor to authorize the disposal of 379 bottles of seized wine in order to steal them.
However, upon reviewing the legal aspects, the assigned prosecutor confirmed that the statute of limitations had already expired for 363 of the 379 seized wine bottles and ordered them returned to their owners.
As a result, the wine-swapping scheme planned by official A and others was effectively foiled.
Investigators found that official A and the other suspect continued to demand an additional 40 million won from the broker, proposing that they would help secure a whistleblower reward or swap even the remaining 16 bottles of wine.
Official A also faces charges of fraud and other offenses for allegedly fabricating a report—pretending that his younger sister was the informant even though he received a tip about a customs evasion case concerning "height-growth nutritional supplements" from a fellow public official in March 2022—thereby pocketing approximately 75 million won in whistleblower rewards.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office noted, "This case came to light as a prosecutor ordered the return of seized items," while also pointing out, "However, under the Public Prosecutors' Office Act scheduled to take effect in October, the prosecutor's authority to direct and supervise special judicial police officers will be abolished."
It added, "We will continue to thoroughly direct and supervise special judicial police officers to ensure that judicial justice is properly upheld, and we will respond firmly to corruption crimes that abuse public officials' official authority so that punishments commensurate with their crimes are meted out."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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