Appeals court reduces ex-special counsel’s sentence to 6 years in bribery case

An appellate court on Wednesday reduced former special counsel Park Young-soo’s sentence on bribery-related charges by one year to six years in prison.

The Seoul High Court also fined Park 200 million won ($150,000) and ordered him to forfeit 200 million won after finding him guilty of accepting the same amount from a private developer for campaign funds in his bid for the head of the Korean Bar Association.

The court acknowledged the transactional nature of the exchange, noting the developer had asked Park, who then served as Woori Bank’s board chair, for the bank to join talks on a consortium for the Daejang-dong property project in Seongnam, south of Seoul.

A lower court had sentenced Park to seven years in prison after convicting him of accepting 300 million won from the developer.

The appellate court found him guilty of accepting only 200 million won, citing inconsistencies in the developer’s testimony on the rest of the amount.

It upheld the lower court’s acquittal and dismissal of other charges against Park, including allegations that he belonged to the so-called “5 billion-won club” in connection with the Daejang-dong project.

The club’s members were allegedly promised or received 5 billion won each from asset management firm Hwacheon Daeyu, the project’s investor.

Park rose to fame after investigating a corruption scandal involving the ousted former President Park Geun-hye as a special counsel in 2017.