Prosecutor Receiving Bribes for Providing Investigation Information to SPC Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison in Second Trial

Both Prosecution and Defendant's Appeals Dismissed
Executive Who Offered Bribes Sentenced to 1 Year and 6 Months in Prison

A prosecution investigator who was tried for leaking investigation information to SPC Group and receiving bribes was sentenced to prison again in the second trial.

On the 7th, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1-2 (Presiding Judges Kim Woo-jin, Han Chang-hoon, Kwon Hyuk-jun) sentenced the prosecution investigator Kim, who was charged with official secret leakage, bribery after improper conduct, and violation of the Personal Information Protection Act, to 3 years in prison, a fine of 15 million won, and a fine collection of 4,438,000 won, the same as in the first trial.

Baek, former executive director of SPC, who was also tried for receiving investigation information from Kim, with whom he had a close relationship, and giving compensation, was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison, the same as in the first trial.

The court stated the sentencing reason, "Kim communicated with executives of companies under investigation, leaked investigation secrets, provided conveniences, and received bribes in return. Considering that Kim's crimes seriously damaged public interest, this must be taken into account."

Kim was indicted on charges of leaking investigation secrets about SPC over 60 times from September 2020 to June 2023, including information on search and seizure warrant requests, scope and execution plans of seizures, investigation progress, and internal review reports, and receiving goods and entertainment worth about 6.2 million won.

Regarding former executive Baek, the court dismissed the appeal, stating, "Although the amount of bribes given is relatively small, it is unfavorable that he used the prosecution investigator to receive investigation secrets and gave bribes, and also sought conveniences through connections with court or National Tax Service employees besides the investigator."

Baek argued that the electronic information obtained through the search and seizure warrant related to the SPC labor union law violation case was illegally collected evidence because it was used in this case without deletion or disposal. However, the court rejected this, stating that the evidence was related to judging Baek's motive for the crime and was not unrelated to the prior search and seizure.