▲ Seoul High Court
A former official of the Federation of Artistic & Cultural Organization of Korea, who was apprehended after a 10-year flight abroad while under investigation for various corruption charges, has been sentenced to five years in prison in his appellate trial.
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 6-2 (Presiding Judges Park Jung-je, Min Dal-ki, and Kim Jong-woo) recently sentenced the former general manager of the federation, surnamed Yoon, to five years in prison and ordered a forfeiture of 1.1055 billion won for charges including breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes, acceptance of bribes, and violation of the Passport Act.
The court of the first instance had previously handed down the same sentence to Yoon.
In April 2011, Yoon was indicted for conspiring with the former president of the federation, surnamed Lee, to sell 200,000 shares of Home & Shopping—which had been allocated during the process of participating in a TV home shopping business exclusively for small and medium-sized enterprises—to a construction contractor, surnamed Moon, for 1.05 billion won, a price significantly lower than the market value of approximately 5 billion won.
The prosecution viewed the difference between the market value of the shares and the sale price, approximately 4 billion won, as the loss incurred by the federation.
Both the first and second instance courts did not fully accept the amount of breach of trust claimed by the prosecution.
The courts valued the 200,000 shares at 2.01 billion won at the time, rather than 5 billion won, and recognized only the difference of 960 million won from the actual sale price (1.05 billion won) as the criminal amount for breach of trust.
In addition, the court found him guilty of all other charges, including accepting 100 million won from a service provider, surnamed Kim, in exchange for a request to transfer the leasehold rights of the Korea Artist Center, which is owned by the federation.
The court pointed out, "The defendant committed crimes on multiple occasions while working as the general manager of the federation, such as receiving significant sums of money in return for dishonest handling of duties," adding that "the nature of the crimes is very poor."
The court also noted that Yoon fled abroad in November 2015 as the prosecution's investigation closed in on him and was apprehended at the airport while entering the country from Myanmar in May 2025, stating, "Considering that he continued his flight for about 10 years, a stern punishment is inevitable."
The court concluded that these sentencing factors were sufficiently considered in the original judgment and dismissed the appeals filed by both the prosecution and Yoon.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.