'Burning Sun Police Chief' Yoon Gyu-geun Confirmed Guilty by Supreme Court

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Yoon Gyu-geun, the so-called 'Burning Sun Police Chief' who was accused of collusion with singer Seungri (real name Lee Seunghyun), has been finally convicted by the Supreme Court.

On the 15th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Kim Seonsu) upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing Chief Yoon to a fine of 20 million won in the appeal trial for charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.

Chief Yoon is accused of receiving stocks worth tens of millions of won from Jeong, the former CEO of CubeS (now Nokwon CNI), a KOSDAQ-listed company, in exchange for covering up a case in which Jeong was sued in 2016, and of instructing Jeong to delete mobile phone messages.

He was also indicted on charges of informing former Yuri Holdings CEO Yoo In-seok, a business partner of Seungri, about the crackdown after confirming the details through police officers at the Gangnam Police Station when a report of violation of the Food Sanitation Act was filed against 'Monkey Museum,' a pub established in Gangnam, Seoul in 2016 by Seungri and Yoo.

In the first trial, he was acquitted of all charges. The first trial court stated, "It is doubtful whether Yoon actually received the stocks as a bribe or under the pretext of mediation," and "The allegation that Yoon gained profits by buying and selling the stocks after receiving undisclosed information related to Nokwon CNI from Jeong also does not appear to have a quid pro quo," thus acquitting him. The charge of instructing evidence destruction was also acquitted, as "it is difficult to prove based solely on the evidence submitted by the prosecution."

The second trial partially overturned the verdict. The second trial court judged the violation of the Capital Markets Act as guilty, stating, "If he had not obtained undisclosed information, it is not reasonable to explain why he purchased more stocks the next day." Regarding the instruction to destroy evidence, it recognized guilt, saying, "Before going to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for investigation, he instructed to destroy evidence related to Monkey Museum," and sentenced him to a fine of 20 million won and a confiscation of 3.19 million won.

However, the prosecution's claims that Chief Yoon learned about the Monkey Museum crackdown and conveyed it to former CEO Jeong (abuse of authority and obstruction of rights) and that he received stocks as a bribe for covering up the case in which Jeong was sued (acceptance of bribes) were judged not guilty, as in the first trial.

The Supreme Court's judgment on this day was no different. The court affirmed the ruling, stating, "There is no error in the lower court's application of the law regarding the violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (acceptance of bribes), violation of the Capital Markets Act, abuse of authority and obstruction of rights, and instruction to destroy evidence."