It's not just the prosecution that goes easy on jaebeols. A court has shown that it cannot stand up to one either. A court just sentenced members of the Doosan group's owning family and some of the conglomerate's executives to suspended prison terms for embezzling tens of billions of won and creating slush funds. The prosecution overlooked their wrongdoing when it indicted them without any arrests, and now the court has joined in the practice of overlooking jaebeol wrongdoing as well.
The Doosan tycoon family's behavior was your worst case of moral laxness. They played with company money as if it was their own, and created slush funds and merrily went spending on themselves. The court found them guilty on all charges stemming from their shameless activities. Having done so, however, it would have made sense to have handed down strict punishment. There has to be stern legal judgment in cases like these, not just so that people pay for their crimes but also to serve warning to other jaebeols that have cliquish ownership structures. Nevertheless, the court rationalized sentencing them to suspended prison terms because of "consideration of circumstances." The prosecution and courts that are so fierce and strict as ice needles in the fall towards powerless common people are warm and generous like a warm breeze in spring towards the conglomerates.
When the prosecution decided against investigating members of the Doosan family without arresting them, it evaded controversy saying it would "leave things to a decision by a court." Even now that a court has given them the same slap on the wrist, however, prosecutors show no sign of being disappointed. The prosecution either got it wrong from the start or the court followed right along the lines of the prosecution's intentions instead of setting matters straight. Allegations that the prosecution and the courts telepathically scripted a course of action to protect the family behind the Doosan conglomerate are inevitable.
The law depends on fairness and consistency. It loses its authority if common citizens and jaebeol are judged according to different standards, and there can be none of the "legal stability" that the courts like to talk about. One worries that this legal judgment will contribute to feeling in our society that the law has no meaning.
The Hankyoreh, 9 February 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
