Fleeing with Laptop, Smashing Hard Drives with Hammer... Ssangbangwool's Systematic Evidence Destruction

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The process by which Ssangbangwool Group employees systematically destroyed evidence from 2021 to 2022 has been detailed in the prosecution's indictment.

According to the indictment of 12 Ssangbangwool Group executives, including Ethics Management Office Director (Auditor) A, submitted by the prosecution to the National Assembly on the 8th, former Ssangbangwool Group Chairman Kim Seong-tae learned in October 2021 that a media outlet was investigating the fact that former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Governor for Peace Ewha-young had been provided with a corporate card and vehicle, and instructed A to destroy related evidence.

Former chairman Kim Seong-tae, the real owner of Ssangbangwool Group, who was arrested in Thailand while living abroad, is being escorted through Incheon International Airport. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

In response, A instructed Deputy Director B of the Ethics Management Office to "shred the PC hard disk containing the related materials," and B smashed the hard disk with a hammer on the company rooftop.

After media reports emerged that the former deputy governor had been provided with a corporate card, the destruction of evidence accelerated. Kim’s younger brother and the group’s vice chairman, Mr. Kim, received instructions from former Chairman Kim on November 13, 2021, to "replace the PCs of personnel involved in the work," and prosecutors have determined that he met with A and others to discuss specific methods of destroying evidence.

That afternoon, Kim and A turned off the CCTV power on the basement first floor of the company building and ordered the removal and scratching of hard disks from computers containing related materials until the next day, which was carried out.

Additionally, Ssangbangwool destroyed or deleted usage records of two multifunction printers in the company office that might have contained scanned copies of confidential prosecution investigation documents (including criminal facts listed in search warrants) received from investigators of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in May last year. The secretarial office issued instructions for employees to take or dispose of usage records of "condo, resort, golf memberships, gift records, and airline ticket usage" at their homes to hide or destroy them.

When the prosecution conducted two rounds of search and seizure in June and July last year, secretarial staff were also investigated for participating in evidence concealment by taking their laptops to the Asia-Pacific Peace Exchange Association office in the same building.

A and others were indicted on charges including evidence destruction, instigation of evidence destruction, harboring a criminal, and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. In addition, two individuals including C, vice president of Ssangbangwool affiliate Kwanglim, face charges of harboring a criminal for holding a birthday party for former Chairman Kim, who was then on the run, at a karaoke in Thailand on July 29 last year.

C is understood to have stayed for some time at a two-story pool villa resort in Pattaya, a famous Thai resort area, dining and playing golf with former Chairman Kim.

C and two other Kwanglim executives are also accused of smuggling large amounts of US dollars to China three times in January, November, and December 2019 to facilitate Ssangbangwool’s remittances to North Korea, handing the money to Vice Chairman Bang Yong-cheol (detained and indicted) in a Chinese airport restroom.