Prosecution Indicts bhc Chairman Without Detention on Charges of Accessing BBQ Internal Network

Chairman Hyunjong Park of BHC, Chairman Kyungbae Seo of Amorepacific, Protocol Team Leader Jongmin Lee of the Liberation Association, CEO Byungyong Lim of GS Engineering & Construction, Executive Director Jaehyun Lim of Google Korea, and CEO Seongsuk Han of Naver are appearing as witnesses at the comprehensive audit of the State Affairs on the Office for Government Policy Coordination held at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee on the 22nd. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Park Hyun-jong (57), chairman of the chicken franchise bhc, has been indicted for illegally accessing the internal computer network of competitor BBQ and viewing data.

According to the prosecution on the 24th, the Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Ha Dong-woo) indicted Chairman Park without detention on the 17th for violating the Information and Communications Network Act.

Chairman Park is accused of twice accessing BBQ's internal computer network on July 3, 2015, at bhc headquarters office in Songpa-gu, Seoul, by stealing the IDs and passwords of A and B, former and current employees of BBQ.

It was investigated that Chairman Park received A and B's email IDs, passwords, and internal network addresses from the company's information team leader and viewed documents related to the international arbitration lawsuit ongoing with BBQ. The prosecution is known to have secured related evidence from Chairman Park's confiscated mobile phone.

The prosecution also confirmed that from 2013 to 2015, the IP address of bhc headquarters' computer accessed BBQ's network about 200 times but was unable to identify the perpetrator. Accordingly, eight bhc officials who were jointly sued with Chairman Park were cleared of charges.

Previously, the prosecution mostly concluded no charges in the case where BBQ filed complaints against Chairman Park and other bhc executives for violating the Information and Communications Network Act and trade secret infringement in 2017. Following BBQ's appeal, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office ordered a reinvestigation.