Kang Dong-hee, a 59-year-old former professional basketball coach, was sentenced to prison in the first trial for embezzling funds from a basketball training center.
According to the legal community on the 25th, Judge Kim Eun-hye of the Incheon District Court's Criminal Division 17 sentenced the former coach Kang to 1 year and 2 months in prison for embezzlement and breach of trust after he was indicted without detention the previous day. In addition, one representative of the basketball training center corporation, who was indicted on similar charges, received a sentence of 1 year in prison, while three others received sentences of 9 months to 1 year in prison with a 2-year suspended sentence. However, the court did not detain the former coach and others for victim recovery purposes.
Judge Kim stated, "The defendants caused the company's finances to deteriorate by withdrawing and arbitrarily using the victim company's funds when a dispute over management rights of the victim company arose," adding, "The defendants' degree of involvement in the crime is significant." She continued, "In the case of the former coach Kang, his role as the actual operator in decision-making had poor character, and they did not hold or consume shares of the victim company, and the deposit for the officetel is expected to be returned. Taking into account that they have no prior criminal history for similar crimes, the sentence was determined."
The former coach Kang and others were indicted for using more than 160 million won of operational funds personally or for purposes unrelated to their intended use while jointly operating the basketball training center from May to October 2018. They are also accused of causing damage by paying over 10 million won from the company's funds for legal advisory fees under the pretext of establishing a new company and for deposit contract fees for transferring the new company's office.
Kang, who had jointly operated Company A since March 2015, reportedly committed these acts in the process of jointly establishing a new corporation when a dispute over management rights arose.
Kang, known as "the magician of the court" during his playing days, was sentenced to 10 months in prison in 2013 after it was revealed that he manipulated games by receiving 47 million won from brokers to insert substitute players into some matches of the regular season. He was expelled from the Korean Basketball League (KBL) in September of that same year.