'Gwangju Hakdong Disaster' 70s Broker Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison on Appeal

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] A broker in his 70s who intervened in the selection process of a demolition company and pocketed money related to the redevelopment project of Hakdong 4 District in Gwangju Metropolitan City was sentenced to imprisonment again in the appellate court.

The Gwangju District Court Criminal Division 4 (Chief Judge Shim Jae-hyun) on the 25th dismissed the appeals filed by the defendant A (75) and the prosecution, who were indicted for violating the Attorney-at-law Act, on the grounds of inappropriate sentencing in the appellate trial.

The court upheld the original judgment, sentencing him to 2 years in prison, stating that the original judgment was appropriate.

Chief Judge Shim judged, "The sentence imposed in the first trial does not appear excessively heavy or light."

A was indicted on charges of receiving a total of 640 million KRW from three companies, claiming to help secure construction contracts for the project together with Moon Heung-sik (63) and others from September 2015 to 2020.

He received money from the representatives of Dawon ENC (asbestos demolition), Hansol Enterprise (general building demolition), and Hyochang Construction (maintenance infrastructure demolition) and shared it with accomplices.

In 2018, he is also accused of pocketing 50 million KRW alone from the representative of Hyochang Construction.

The demolition project of the Hakdong 4 District redevelopment project (total construction cost 463 billion KRW) was estimated at 19.4 billion KRW.

Meanwhile, on June 9, 2021, at around 4:23 p.m., the demolition of Haksan Building at the construction site collapsed, covering a city bus, resulting in 9 bus passengers dead and 8 injured.