[Editorial] Law still smiles on Korean plutocracy

A court has found Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo guilty of embezzlement, breach of trust, and other charges and sentenced him to three years in prison. It is particularly notable when a prominent figure in big business is given real jail time instead of the usual suspended sentence. However, this alone is not enough to allow you to interpret the sentence as an expression of the court’s determination to crack down on corruption at chaebeol, or Korea’s largest conglomerates. If you compare Chung’s sentence to what the law prescribes, or if you compare it to what is called a strict sentence for members of the general public, you are still forced to conclude that this was a very permissive sentence and that it was given in Chung’s case because he is a chaebeol tycoon. Chief Supreme Court justice Lee Yong-hun recently told judges to take stern action on white-collar crime, but it seems that his wish is not going to apply to Korea’s most prominent business leaders.

The special law on this type of crime calls for prison terms that are indefinite or have a duration of more than five years if someone profits 5 billion won (US$5.3 million) or more from embezzlement or breach of trust. The court, then, gave Chung a sentence two years shorter than the minimum of what the law requires, saying it took into consideration the fact Chung "significantly contributed to the overcoming of the foreign currency crisis [of 1997] and the development of the national economy." Whoever the suspect, we think the judge overstepped his authority by cutting two years off of Chung’s sentence.

The next thing you notice about the fact Chung was sentenced to only three years is that it then makes it possible for him to receive a suspended sentence. Sentences generally get reduced on appeal, and many suspect the current sentence is just something to lay the groundwork for him to get away with an entirely suspended one. There is no shortage of examples, like when SK Global chairman Choi Tae-won was given three years in prison for doctoring his company’s account books, only to have that sentence suspended after an appeal.

In fact, the decision was somewhat expected, starting when the prosecution asked for six years. It is hard to understand how you can ask for just one year more than the minimum for someone who embezzled 90 billion won, and when you have talked about the need to punish such individuals to the fullest extent of the law. According to the civic group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (Chamyeo Yeondae), 73.7 percent of the business executives who have been found guilty of breach of trust and embezzlement since 2000 received sentences of less than three years in prison, which then turned into suspended sentences. The accusation that the law used to be manipulated by those with political power, and nowadays is controlled by those with economic power, would appear to be applicable here. This first judgment is of course just the first trial for Chung. There will be appeals. That which should be fought over in the course of the appeals process should be duly fought over, but we hope we do not hear that Chung’s sentence was reduced for no clear reason, or to hear people say, "We knew that would happen."

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