On the 5th, the police launched a forced investigation into Esconec, the parent company of Aricell, a battery manufacturer in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, which manipulated quality inspections for military supplies.
A police official stated, "The procedures for verification when supplying to the military were not properly followed," adding, "This is not a military supply corruption case. It is a charge of obstruction of business against the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality (DATQ)."
The police revealed that on the 23rd of last month, Aricell had been engaging in illegal activities since 2021 by separately manufacturing batteries for quality inspection and swapping them with samples that had already been selected and sealed.
The DATQ is responsible for quality inspections of military supplies. The inspection involves either requesting functional tests from other institutions and submitting the test reports or randomly selecting samples from manufactured batteries to verify quality. Aricell is suspected of manipulating the results of both inspection methods.
The police also believe that Esconec passed the military quality inspection by manipulating test data when supplying batteries to the Ministry of National Defense in 2017-2018.
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