Appellate Court:
"Difficult to Conclude Awareness of Falsifying Official Documents"
An official who was criminally punished and lost his public office for accepting bribes during the sale of the Pyeongchang Alpensia Resort was sentenced to prison in the first trial for falsifying an official document to make it appear as if a private investment project was underway during his tenure. However, the official was acquitted of the charges in the appellate court.
On November 4, Yonhap News Agency reported that the Criminal Division 1 of the Chuncheon District Court (Presiding Judge Shim Hyeongeun) overturned the original verdict that had sentenced Mr. A, who was indicted on charges of drafting and using a false official document, to four months in prison, and instead found him not guilty.
According to the report, Mr. A was in charge of attracting investment for private development projects at the Gangwon Provincial Government. In September and October 2019, he was introduced to Mr. B by an acquaintance. Mr. B then asked Mr. A to draft a confirmation letter stating that "Company C is in discussions with Gangwon Province and Samcheon-dong in Chuncheon City for a development project in order to attract foreign capital investment."
In November of the same year, Mr. A obtained the provincial governor's official seal on a document stating that "Company C, as a private investor in the Chuncheon Samcheon Amusement Park tourism facility development project, is in discussions with Gangwon Province to borrow 100 million US dollars in foreign currency to build hotels, resorts, and other facilities."
Investigators believed that Mr. A had falsely drafted the confirmation letter to make it appear as if Gangwon Province had the authority to proceed with the development project and had selected Company C as the private investor, when in fact this was not the case.
In court, Mr. A argued that "the contents of the confirmation letter are not false" and pleaded not guilty. The first trial found him guilty, citing the fact that the Chuncheon Samcheon Amusement Park tourism facility development project was being handled by Chuncheon City, not Gangwon Province, which had no authority over the project, and that Mr. A was not the person in charge of the project at the time the letter was drafted.
The appellate court reached a different conclusion. The court found it difficult to conclude that Mr. A was aware he was committing a criminal act simply because he described Gangwon Province as the main entity of the development project and himself as the key project manager.
Additionally, the court noted that the investment attraction department where Mr. A worked at the time was responsible for reviewing investment attraction for development plans in cities and counties, including Chuncheon City, and for separately supporting and managing projects in regions where attracting investment was difficult. This was cited as a basis for the not guilty verdict.
The court determined that the confirmation letter written by Mr. A was intended to inform external investors at the earliest stage of the investment attraction process about the existence of the development project. Considering Mr. A's position and the nature of the confirmation letter, the court concluded it was difficult to believe that Mr. A was aware he was drafting a false official document.
Furthermore, the court found that the use of the term "discuss" in the confirmation letter simply indicated that discussions were ongoing, and that it was not possible to infer from this that "Gangwon Province had selected Company C as the private investor." As a result, the court accepted Mr. A's appeal, overturned the original verdict, and found him not guilty.
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