Kim In-seop, former CEO of Korea Housing Technology, who was indicted as a 'lobbyist for official approval' related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project in Seongnam City, was sentenced to prison in the first trial. This is the first court ruling on the Baekhyeon-dong suspicion case, in which Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was also implicated and prosecuted.
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 27 (Presiding Judge Kim Ok-gon) on the 13th sentenced former CEO Kim, who was charged with bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, to five years in prison and ordered the confiscation of approximately 6.3 billion won. The court detained Kim, who had been released on bail, citing "a risk of flight."
The court stated, "The defendant, without any particular expertise or know-how regarding this project, solely used his connections with local politicians and Seongnam City officials to actively facilitate various permits and approvals multiple times, and in return, received an enormous sum exceeding 7 billion won, which is difficult to justify by common public standards, thus bearing very heavy criminal responsibility."
Former CEO Kim is accused of receiving 7.7 billion won from Asia Developer Chairman Jung Ba-ul, a real estate development company, as a bribe for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project from September 2015 to March of this year. He is also accused of obtaining business rights for a Hamba restaurant worth approximately 500 million won.
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