Lee Hwa-young, former Deputy Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province, who was sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in prison in the first trial for conspiring to remit funds to North Korea on behalf of Ssangbangwool Group and accepting bribes worth hundreds of millions of won, filed an appeal on the 10th.
According to the legal community, Lee's side submitted the appeal to the Suwon District Court on the same day. The first trial verdict has not yet been registered in the internal computer system of the Suwon District Court, and it is known that Lee's side appealed first without reviewing the verdict.
Lee's legal team criticized the court immediately after the first trial verdict on the 7th, calling the ruling "biased." Attorney Kim Hyun-chul stated, "Former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Seong-tae attempted the North Korea business as a strategy to increase the capacity for stock-collateralized loans, but the court ignored all these circumstances and selectively accepted the prosecution's opinion. If an average judge reviews the case in the next appeal trial, the result of the first trial will change."
Lee was indicted in 2019 on charges of conspiring to remit 8 million dollars to North Korea on behalf of Ssangbangwool Group. The case involves Kim, the former chairman, delivering the smart farm project funds (5 million dollars) promised by Gyeonggi Province to North Korea and the travel expenses (3 million dollars) for the then-Governor Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, to Kim Young-chul, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and Chairman of the Korea-Asia-Pacific Peace Committee. The prosecution viewed that Lee conspired with Kim to smuggle large amounts of dollars to China without declaration or permission and paid them to the Workers' Party of Korea, which is subject to financial sanctions.
Additionally, Lee is accused of receiving corporate cards and vehicles from Kim and others from July 2018 to August 2022, and receiving about 334 million won in political funds through methods such as paying false salaries to his aides.
The Criminal Division 11 of Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo) sentenced Lee on the 7th to 9 years and 6 months in prison and fined 250 million won on charges including violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, violation of the Political Funds Act, and obstruction of evidence.
One of the key issues, the suspicion of remittance to North Korea, was fully acknowledged, including Ssangbangwool's attempt to cover the smart farm project funds and the then-Governor's travel expenses to North Korea that Gyeonggi Province was supposed to pay. However, of the 8 million dollars cited in the indictment, only 3.94 million dollars were recognized as illegally smuggled funds. Of the bribe amount of about 259 million won, about 107.63 million won was acknowledged, and of the illegal political funds of about 334 million won, about 218.31 million won was recognized.
The prosecution, which had previously sought a 15-year prison term and a 1 billion won fine for Lee, is also expected to appeal soon.
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