The guilt of former Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Mi-hyang, accused of embezzling donations intended to support victims of Japanese military sexual slavery, has been confirmed. It took more than four years from Yoon's indictment in September 2020 until the Supreme Court's final ruling, resulting in Yoon only losing her parliamentary seat after completing her full term as a lawmaker.
The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Sang-hwan) on the 14th dismissed both the prosecution's and Yoon's appeals in the final appeal trial on eight charges including fraud, quasi-fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust in the course of duty, violation of the Act on the Collection and Use of Donations, violation of the Subsidy Act, and violation of the Local Finance Act, thereby upholding the lower court's sentence of 1 year and 6 months imprisonment with 3 years probation.
The court stated the reason for dismissing Yoon's appeal was that "there was no error in the lower court's guilty verdict by violating the rules of logic and experience or exceeding the limits of free evaluation of evidence, nor was there any misinterpretation or omission of legal principles concerning the establishment of fraud, violation of the Subsidy Act, violation of the Act on the Collection and Use of Donations, and embezzlement in the course of duty, as well as principles of evidence-based trial, presumption of innocence, trial-centeredness and direct examination, legality principle, justifiable acts, conspiracy relationships, and burden of proof."
On the same day, the Supreme Court also upheld the lower court's sentence of a 20 million KRW fine against Kim Mo (49), former director of Justice and Memory Foundation (Jeonguiyeondae), who was indicted alongside Yoon.
Yoon was indicted in September 2020 on charges including the private use of funds raised from 2011 to 2020 to help victims of military sexual slavery, falsely receiving subsidies from Seoul Metropolitan Government, and collecting donations into organizational and personal accounts without registration with the competent authorities.
The first trial court recognized only the embezzlement of 17.18 million KRW as guilty and sentenced her to a fine of 15 million KRW.
However, in September last year, the appellate court significantly expanded the scope of the guilty verdict and sentenced her to 1 year and 6 months imprisonment with 3 years probation.
The second trial court increased the amount of embezzled donations to 79.58 million KRW and also found her guilty of collecting 129.67 million KRW in condolence money for Grandmother Kim Bok-dong into a personal account and using it for other purposes.
She was also found guilty of fraudulently claiming 65.2 million KRW in government subsidies from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family by falsely calculating personnel expenses.
While a sitting lawmaker loses their seat if sentenced to imprisonment or higher (including suspended sentences) during their term, Yoon completed her term in May without a final verdict being issued.
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