Cho Seongeun, CEO of Almighty Media, who was put on trial for allegedly forging party membership applications during the party formation process, received a suspended prison sentence in the first trial.
On September 10, Judge Ko Soyoung of the Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 9 sentenced CEO Cho, who was indicted on charges including forgery of private documents and violation of the Political Parties Act, to one year in prison with a two-year suspension, along with 40 hours of community service. Kim Jonggu, former Ambassador to Mongolia, and Lee Jaeseop, former Gyeonggi Province Chair of Brand New Party, who were indicted on the same charges, were each sentenced to six months in prison with a one-year suspension.
They were accused of forging party membership applications in February 2020 while forming the new party "Brand New Party" in order to meet the requirement of 5,000 party members needed for party establishment. CEO Cho was found to have received personal information of approximately 18,000 Vietnam War veterans through former Ambassador Kim and, together with former Chair Lee, forged 1,162 membership applications.
Judge Ko explained the sentencing by stating, "Registering a political party under false pretenses not only undermines trust in party politics but can also affect the fairness of elections."
Meanwhile, CEO Cho is known as the whistleblower in the so-called "Prosecution Whistleblowing" case. This case involves allegations that, about two weeks before the April 15, 2020 general election, prosecutors instigated complaints against pro-government figures, including then-Open Democratic Party proportional representative candidate Choi Kangwook and then-Roh Moo-hyun Foundation Chairman Ryu Simin.
Son Junseong, who was then Director of Investigative Information Policy at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and was indicted in connection with the whistleblowing case, was sentenced to one year in prison in the first trial but was acquitted in the second trial. In April of this year, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court's ruling, confirming his acquittal. This came three years after he was indicted in May 2022.
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