Ex-Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo's Sentence Reduced to Fine in 'Fake Seafood Fraud' Bribery Case

Former Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo, who received a prison sentence with probation in the first trial on charges of accepting gifts such as a rented Porsche from a so-called "fake seafood supplier," has had his sentence reduced to a fine in the appellate trial.

On August 27, Criminal Division 13 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Kim Moo-shin, Lee Woo-hee, and Yoo Dong-gyun) sentenced the former special prosecutor, who was charged with violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, to a fine of 10 million won and ordered the forfeiture of 2.5 million won.

Previously, the first trial sentenced him to four months in prison suspended for one year, along with an order for the forfeiture of 3.36 million won.

The sentence for Kim, the fake seafood supplier who provided the valuables, was also reduced to four months in prison, down from the six-month prison term handed down in the first trial.

Former Special Prosecutor Park was indicted in November 2022 on charges of receiving a total of about 3.36 million won in valuables from Kim in 2020, including the free use of a Porsche rental car worth about 2.5 million won in rental fees and 860,000 won worth of seafood on three occasions.

While the first trial found all charges against him guilty, the appellate court ruled that evidence regarding about 500,000 won worth of that seafood was illegally collected and thus inadmissible.

The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act stipulates punishment for individuals who receive money or valuables exceeding 1 million won per instance or 3 million won annually from the same person.

Re-evaluating the constituent elements of the Graft Act based on the remaining offenses, the court determined that even when combining the offenses, the total value received did not exceed 3 million won. Consequently, only the charge involving the free use of the Porsche, which exceeded 1 million won in a single instance, was recognized as guilty.

Accordingly, the forfeiture amount was calculated at 2.5 million won to correspond with the ruling.

Rebuking the former special prosecutor, the court stated, "As a special prosecutor for the Park Geun-hye administration's corruption scandal, he was recognized with a status comparable to a high-ranking public official and thus needed to be more virtuous than any other official. Instead, he accepted valuables and showed an attitude of evading responsibility by claiming he does not fall under the category of public officials subject to the Graft Act."

Regarding the fake seafood supplier Kim, the court noted, "He committed most of the crimes during a period when he was already on probation for a previous offense, making him highly culpable."

Kim was previously sentenced to seven years in prison by the Supreme Court in 2022 for swindling approximately 11.6 billion won from victims by falsely promising high returns on investments in "seon-dong squid" (squid frozen immediately upon being caught on a boat).

Meanwhile, an incumbent prosecutor surnamed Lee, who was also indicted on bribery charges like former Special Prosecutor Park, was acquitted, maintaining the verdict from the first trial.

Prosecutor Lee had been accused of receiving rental cars such as a Porsche free of charge and accepting about 8.49 million won in total—including 2.2 million won worth of seafood—between 2020 and 2021. However, because only a portion of the charges were recognized as guilty, the total sum of received items did not exceed 3 million won, leading to the ruling that no crime was established.

Out of three former and current journalists indicted alongside them on charges of receiving valuables such as golf clubs from Kim, two were sentenced to fines ranging from 8 million to 12 million won in both the first and second trials, while the remaining one was acquitted due to illegally collected evidence.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.