Lee Hwa-young, the former Vice Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province, received a confirmed sentence of 7 years and 8 months in prison from the Supreme Court on the 5th for the allegation of illegal remittances to North Korea by SSANGBANGWOOL Group. The former vice governor was tried for allegedly receiving bribes worth hundreds of millions of won from SSANGBANGWOOL and conspiring in the remittance of $8 million to North Korea. President Lee Jae-myung is also under investigation as a suspect in the case and is undergoing a trial without detention.
The second division of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Park Young-jae) dismissed both the appeal from the former vice governor and the prosecution regarding the charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (bribery), the Political Funds Act, and the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, thereby maintaining the 2nd trial's sentence of 7 years and 8 months.
Former Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young was arrested and indicted for allegedly causing SSANGBANGWOOL to cover expenses totaling $8 million, including $5 million for a Gyeonggi Province North Korea project (smart farm) and $3 million for the North Korea visit expenses of then Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, between January 2019 and January 2020. He also faced charges of violating bribery and political funds laws for receiving a corporate card and corporate vehicle from former SSANGBANGWOOL Group Chairman Kim Sung-tae, as well as making false employee salary payments.
The first trial court acknowledged some of the political funds law violation charges against the former vice governor, as well as the bribery charges and foreign currency smuggling charges, sentencing him to 9 years and 6 months in prison and imposing a fine of 250 million won and a confiscation order of 325.95 million won.
The first trial court ruled that "$2 million out of the $8 million sent by SSANGBANGWOOL to North Korea can be sufficiently regarded as a reward related to the North Korea visit of then Governor Lee Jae-myung." However, it found him not guilty of the charges related to the $5 million for the North Korean smart farm project and $1 million concerning the delivery to the Workers' Party of Korea related to the expenses of the North Korean visit by then Governor Lee Jae-myung.
The second trial reached the same conclusion regarding the charges as the first trial but reduced the prison sentence to 7 years and 8 months.
Both the former vice governor and the prosecution appealed the second trial verdict. However, the Supreme Court saw no issues with the second trial's judgment and confirmed the sentence.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's decision regarding the former vice governor could also impact the case against President Lee Jae-myung regarding the "SSANGBANGWOOL North Korea remittance third-party bribery case." Following the first trial sentence of the former vice governor, the prosecution indicted President Lee as an accomplice in the case without detention on June 12 of last year.
The charges against President Lee include third-party bribery, violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, and breach of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act. Although the request for illegal remittances to North Korea was made by the former vice governor to former SSANGBANGWOOL Group Chairman Kim Sung-tae, the prosecution judges that it was President Lee who was informed of and approved the process.
This case has been assigned to the 11th Criminal Division of Suwon District Court (Chief Judge Song Byung-hoon), which issued the sentence for the former vice governor. A preparatory hearing is scheduled for July 22.