[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Jo Kwon, the younger brother of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, who was indicted on charges including recruitment corruption, was sentenced to one year in prison in the first trial and was taken into custody in court. However, most of the other charges, including false lawsuits, were acquitted.
On the 18th, the Criminal Division 21 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Miri) recognized Jo's obstruction of business charge as guilty and sentenced him to one year in prison.
Jo, who had been detained and indicted but was released on bail last May, was taken into custody in court following the prison sentence.
However, the court ruled that the charge of breach of trust was not recognized, considering that Jo was not in charge of recruitment duties, and acquitted him. Additionally, Jo was acquitted of the remaining charges, including securing construction payment claims based on false construction work and filing a sham lawsuit against Woongdong Academy in 2006 and 2017, causing damages of 11,550,100,000 KRW to the school foundation.
Meanwhile, Jo, who served as the secretary-general of Woongdong Academy, was indicted on charges of receiving a total of 1.8 billion KRW from two applicants while hiring social studies teachers at Woongdong Middle School in 2016-2017 and passing on exam questions and answer sheets.
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