Home Shopping Seller of 'Fake Hanwoo Bulgogi' Worth 600 Million Won Receives Suspended Prison Sentence in First Trial

Mixed Beef with Dairy Cow Meat Sold as 100% Hanwoo
Sold 600 Million Won Worth Through Public Home Shopping

The photo is unrelated to the article. [Photo by Yonhap News]

The CEO of a livestock processing company who sold bulgogi mixed with dairy cow meat as "100% Korean beef" on home shopping was sentenced to a suspended prison term.

On the 11th, Judge Hwang Yoon-chul of the Incheon District Court Criminal Division 10 announced that he sentenced A (63), the CEO of the livestock processing company, to one year in prison with a two-year suspension for violating the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods, etc.

A was charged with mixing 52 kg of dairy cow meat processed at a food factory in Incheon from August 29 to September 6 of last year and selling 63,000 kg of bulgogi falsely labeled as 100% Korean beef.

The bulgogi mixed with dairy cow meat was sold to about 13,000 people for approximately 600 million won through Gongyoung Home Shopping. The product was advertised as Korean beef bulgogi, with a famous chef appearing on the sales broadcast and even showing a grade certificate stating it was first-grade Korean beef.

Judge Hwang stated, "The amount of goods sold to consumers was considerable," and noted, "A has a history of several prison sentences and suspended sentences for other crimes." However, he explained the sentencing by saying, "He admitted to the crime and showed remorse," and "considered that the amount of dairy cow meat included in the sold product was not large."

Meanwhile, this is not the first controversy surrounding Gongyoung Home Shopping. Recently, employees were criticized for wasting public funds by using corporate cards for personal purposes such as online shopping. According to the office of Kim Yong-min, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Business Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the amount spent using corporate cards by Gongyoung Home Shopping employees over two days from December 29 to 30, 2022, reached 20 million won. They spent 1.9 million won at Starbucks located in the company building alone.