The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice No Tae-ak) on the 9th upheld the original ruling that acquitted former LH Deputy Director A and others who were indicted for violating the Act on the Prevention of Corruption and the Establishment and Operation of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Act).
In February 2016, while serving as Deputy Director at the Seongnam Regeneration Project Team of LH Gyeonggi Regional Headquarters, A came to know information about candidate sites in the third phase redevelopment zone of Seongnam City during work. Subsequently, A and acquaintances indicted together used this information to purchase multiple buildings in the area, then sold them after prices rose, pocketing the difference.
Acquaintance B, indicted alongside A, was found to have sold a building purchased on March 30, 2017, for 185 million won together with himself and his three daughters, on February 22, 2018, for 275 million won, gaining a profit of about 90 million won. In a similar manner, A and others repeatedly bought and sold real estate a total of 37 times from September 27, 2016, to January 15, 2020, either directly gaining financial benefits or enabling third parties to profit. The total amount of gains they obtained was calculated at 19.2 billion won.
The first trial sentenced A to four years in prison and handed down prison sentences to the defendants, but the second trial overturned the verdict to acquittal. The second trial court judged that "the real estate development information in this case does not constitute a secret as defined by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Act, and it is difficult to see that A learned the information during work or that the defendants acquired real estate using it." The Supreme Court found no error in the legal reasoning of the second trial's judgment.
As a result, it has become inevitable to assess that the Supreme Court's judgments on recent land speculation cases involving LH employees using undisclosed information are divided. Regarding a former employee who, while working in urban development at the LH Gwangmyeong·Siheung Business Headquarters, used information obtained to purchase four plots totaling about 17,000㎡ in Noonsadong, Gwangmyeong City, Gyeonggi Province, for 2.5 billion won together with acquaintances, the Supreme Court confirmed the original ruling in August that sentenced him to two years in prison.
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