Former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik, accused of causing economic losses worth hundreds of billions of won to Eastar Jet through the establishment of an overseas airline, was sentenced to prison.
The Criminal Division 11 of Jeonju District Court (Chief Judge No Jong-chan) sentenced Lee to two years in prison on the 24th for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (breach of trust). Park Seok-ho, CEO of Thai Eastar Jet, who was also indicted on the same charges, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison with a four-year probation.
The court stated regarding Lee, "Although Eastar Jet was in a state of capital erosion, the defendant unilaterally decided to establish Thai Eastar Jet. Even if confidentiality was necessary, excluding most of the management and staff and establishing an overseas low-cost airline with difficult management control is an incomprehensible decision-making process."
It continued, "The defendant received the airline establishment plan but made almost no effort to investigate whether the plan accurately reflected the airline industry's situation, whether the expected profits were inflated, or whether necessary costs were reduced. In light of these circumstances, using airline ticket sales proceeds as funds for establishing Thai Eastar Jet cannot be considered within managerial discretion."
The court added, "The defendant's crime caused damage worth hundreds of billions of won, and employees who needed to address urgent issues had to perform unnecessary roles. However, the defendant was sentenced to six years in prison for other embezzlement and breach of trust cases involving companies he owned, and considering fairness if tried simultaneously, the sentence was determined accordingly."
Lee claimed through his lawyer that the prosecution was an abuse of prosecution rights due to 'split indictment,' but the court rejected this, citing Supreme Court precedents that "if the prosecutor exercised prosecution rights arbitrarily to cause disadvantage, it could be considered abuse of prosecution rights, but if the charges were separated during the investigation process rather than indicted all at once, it cannot be seen as an abuse of discretion."
Regarding CEO Park, the court said, "The defendant claims he was not involved in establishing the overseas airline, but he prepared the Thai Eastar Jet establishment report and participated in the decision-making process with only a few involved. Considering these circumstances, he can be recognized as a joint principal offender with Lee regarding the establishment of Thai Eastar Jet."
Lee and Park were indicted for causing economic losses to Eastar Jet by using 7.1 billion won from Eastar Jet’s airline ticket sales between February and May 2017 as funds to establish Thai Eastar Jet, a low-cost airline in Thailand.
They are also accused of causing damage to the company by having Eastar Jet provide payment guarantees for Thai Eastar Jet’s aircraft lease costs amounting to 36.9 billion won in August 2019.
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