The former vice president and acting president of Daedeok University, who was handed over to trial on charges of receiving money and valuables in exchange for employment, was sentenced to prison.
On the 13th, Daejeon District Court Criminal Division 6 (Chief Judge Baek Kyung-hyeon) sentenced Mr. A, the former Vice President and Acting President of Daedeok University and the former Secretary General of the Changseong Academy, to four years in prison and ordered him to collect 240 million won, who were arrested and indicted on charges of breach of trust and violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.
Mr. B, a school corporation official who was arrested and indicted on the same charges as Mr. A, was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
Mr. C, who was indicted without detention on charges of breach of trust by giving money to Mr. A and Mr. B in exchange for the promise of conversion to regular employees and new employment, was sentenced to 6 months in prison (2 years of probation), and the remaining three people were each sentenced to 3 months in prison (1 year of probation) and a fine of 3 million won.
Mr. A was sent to trial on charges of receiving a total of 240 million won from four people, including Mr. C, between 2021 and 2023, when he served as Vice President and Acting President of Daedeok University and Secretary General of Changseong Academy, a school corporation, and promising to hire their nephews or sons at educational institutions affiliated with the corporation.
Changseong Academy is a school corporation that operates Daedeok University, a kindergarten affiliated with Daedeok University, and three middle and high schools in the Daejeon area.
Mr. B, who had worked as a principal at a corporation-affiliated school for a long time, was indicted on charges of approaching a temporary teacher and demanding money or valuables by pretending to hire him as a full-time teacher, or receiving some of the money directly and delivering it to Mr. A.
Four people, including Mr. C, were handed over to trial on charges of giving money ranging from tens of millions of won to hundreds of millions of won to Mr. A and Mr. B, respectively, to convert their nephews or sons to full-time employees or to hire new employees.
Throughout the trial, Mr. A refuted that some of the money was not illegal compensation as borrowed money and denied that it did not constitute breach of trust because his title at the time was not related to the hiring of employees, but the court did not accept this.
The court said, “Some of the money transactions took the form of a land sale contract or an IOU, but in reality, it can be seen that the money was exchanged in exchange for guaranteed employment,” and added, “Even Mr. B and some of the defendants, who had continuously denied the charges during the investigation, came to court after the indictment and admitted to the charges.”
He added, "Mr. A is a descendant of the founder of Changseong Academy, a school corporation, and has worked at an organization affiliated with the corporation for several decades since 1985, and appears to have exercised substantial influence over the corporation as a whole even without a title. In fact, in some of the interviews in which Mr. A was a committee member, all interviewees were Daedeok University administrative staff or employees of the corporate secretariat, so Mr. A was actually able to have a significant influence on employee personnel and hiring."
Regarding the reason for the sentencing, the court said, "The nature of the crime is very bad as it turbulent the operation of the corporation by receiving an illegal favor against the will of the founder, accepting money or valuables, or demanding money first," and added, "However, we took into account the fact that a significant portion of the solicitation money was returned, some were only attempts, and there is no history of punishment exceeding a fine so far."
