[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Park Hyun-jong (58), chairman of bhc, who was indicted on charges of illegally accessing the internal computer network of BBQ, a competitor in the chicken industry, denied the charges at his first trial.
On the 3rd, the Seoul Eastern District Court Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Park Jung-gil) held the first hearing of Chairman Park, who was brought to trial on charges related to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (Information and Communications Network Infringement, etc.).
At the trial, Park’s defense attorney stated, “(Chairman Park) had no intention of accessing BBQ’s internal computer network, nor did he actually access it,” and added, “He does not admit to the charges.”
Regarding the date the prosecution pointed out as the day of illegal access, the defense said, “It was before Chairman Park received the problematic ID and password,” and “It was physically impossible for him to access the network.”
The defense also added, “The access times were only 23 seconds and 25 seconds each, making it impossible to extract vast amounts of data as the prosecution claims,” and “At the time of the alleged access, Chairman Park was in a meeting with an external party, and the ID and password were not ‘top secret’ but known by others as well.”
BBQ’s side, given the opportunity to speak, said, “We do not doubt that the defendant’s guilt will be revealed in court and judged by the law,” and “Although the charges may seem minor, the victim has suffered tremendous damage and pain.” They added, “There were hundreds of unauthorized accesses to BBQ’s internal network from bhc’s IP, but only two cases were prosecuted because it was difficult to specify all instances.”
It was investigated that Chairman Park received email IDs and passwords of persons A and B, as well as the internal computer network address, from bhc’s information team leader, and viewed documents related to the ongoing international arbitration lawsuit between BBQ and bhc.
The prosecution is known to have secured related evidence from a mobile phone seized from Chairman Park. The prosecution confirmed that from 2013 to 2015, the IP address of bhc’s headquarters computer accessed BBQ’s network about 270 times, but since the perpetrator could not be identified, eight bhc officials who were jointly accused with Chairman Park were not indicted.
In 2013, bhc, which was a subsidiary of BBQ, was sold to a U.S.-based private equity fund. Park, who joined BBQ in 2011, moved to become the CEO of bhc. bhc filed a lawsuit with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Arbitration Court in 2014, claiming that BBQ inflated the number of franchise stores during the sale negotiations, and the ICC ruled in favor of bhc. Since then, both sides have been engaged in civil and criminal lawsuits for several years.
Chairman Park’s next trial is scheduled for the morning of the 29th.
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