Former Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly member receives suspended sentence for bribery

A former Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly member has been sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial for attempting to bribe a public official to ensure a specific agricultural cooperative would be selected for a project.

Suwon District Court's Criminal Division 14 (Presiding Judge Yoon Sung-yeol) sentenced former Assembly member A, who was indicted without detention on charges of expressing intent to bribe and other offenses, to 8 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, on the 4th.

The court also sentenced A's accomplice, regional constituent B, to 8 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, and ordered the forfeiture of 10 million won.

The court also ordered both defendants to perform 160 hours of social service.

The court stated, "The nature of this crime is not good, and defendant A, as a provincial assembly member, had a duty to perform duties with integrity and had completed related training, yet committed the crime, making the blame significantly high."

It added, "Although the intended result did not occur, this is because the public official immediately reported the bag of money delivered by the defendants to the audit office and took appropriate measures, not because of the defendants' actions." "However, considering that A only delivered the money at B's request and did not actively demand money, the sentence was determined," the court explained the sentencing reasons.

Former Assembly member A is accused of delivering a paper bag containing 10 million won in cash, received from B, to a senior public official at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government in charge of the pilot project for low-carbon rice cultivation management technology dissemination at his office in the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly in late 2023.

Prosecutors believe that A committed the crime after receiving a request from B to "help a specific agricultural cooperative be selected for the project" and indicted them in September of last year.

During the trial, A claimed innocence, stating that he did not know the name of the agricultural cooperative for which B had requested the favor and did not know there was money in the bag, but the court did not accept any of his claims.

The court said, "The paper bag was crumpled, and inside were envelopes with the bank's name on them, containing 20 50,000-won bills each." "Given the shape and contents of the paper bag, it is likely that the presence of money was easily recognized."

It further explained, "Judging from the call records and text messages between the defendants and the public official related to the project before and after the crime, it is determined that A requested the selection of the agricultural cooperative related to B."