Kim Man-bae, sentenced to prison in 1st trial for 'Seongnam City Development Corporation ordinance bribery charge' → acquitted in 2nd trial... "Charges not established"

Bribery Charges: First Trial Sentenced Kim to 2 Years and 6 Months in Prison
Former Seongnam City Council Chairman Choi Yoon-gil Also Acquitted in Appellate Court

Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, was acquitted in the appellate trial on charges of bribery and solicitation to the then chairman of the Seongnam City Council in connection with the Daejang-dong development project. In the first trial, Kim was sentenced to prison.

Kim Man-bae heading to the courthouse. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 8th, the Criminal Division 2-3 of Suwon High Court (Presiding Judges Park Kwang-seo, Kim Min-gi, Kim Jong-woo) delivered the appellate verdict on Kim’s bribery charge case, stating, "There are errors in fact-finding and legal interpretation in the parts the original trial recognized as guilty," and thus acquitted him.

Choi Yoon-gil, the former chairman of the Seongnam City Council, who was indicted on charges of accepting bribes after improper conduct for passing the ordinance to establish the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation upon Kim’s solicitation, was also acquitted.

The court stated, "The passage of the ordinance to establish the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation was caused by some Saenuri Party members at the time acting according to their own convictions rather than the party line," and "Considering the chaotic situation in the meeting room at the time of the incident, the fact that defendant Choi conducted a hand vote again after the electronic vote was rejected does not appear to be an improper procedure."

Furthermore, regarding Kim, the court judged, "Kim’s charges are based on the premise of Choi’s official misconduct, but since Choi’s official misconduct was not recognized, the charges do not stand."

The prosecution charged former chairman Choi and Kim, believing that in 2012, Choi accepted Kim’s request to pass the ordinance to establish the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation and passed the ordinance against voting principles while opposing council members left in January 2013. In the appellate trial, the prosecution sought a 4-year prison sentence for Kim and 5 years imprisonment with a fine of about 80 million won for former chairman Choi.

The prosecution viewed that in return, former chairman Choi was hired as vice chairman of Hwacheon Daeyu in February 2021 and was promised sequential payment of 4 billion won in performance bonuses from the completion of the Daejang-dong urban development project, and received about 80 million won in salary and other names until November 17 of the same year.

In the first trial in February last year, the court found Kim guilty of bribery and sentenced him to 2 years and 6 months in prison, and sentenced former chairman Choi to 4 years and 6 months in prison. Although the court imposed actual prison sentences, it did not detain them in court, considering there was little risk of evidence destruction and that they had sincerely participated in the trial.