[Q&A] Employee’s Act of Adultery and Its Legal Implication to the Employer under Korean Law

We’ve been asked about a criminal charge against an adultery under Korean criminal law quite often.  Foreign employees in Korean should be cautious that such an adultery is a crime under Korean law.  Here is a real example of such a case where a foreign officer committed a adultery and the company(employer)’s legal concern made it ask some legal consultations to our law firm regarding the adultery law and criminal law process in Korea.

Q) Mr. XX, who is a head director of our company, committed an adultery and was charged by the Korean prosecutor.  He has confessed his guilty and the prosecutor demanded one year’s imprisonment for his crime to the court.  If the court finalize that Mr. XX is guilty, is that means that Mr. XX will be imprisonment for one year or lesser?

A) Finding guilty does not always mean Mr. XX will be imprisoned.  The Court may SUSPEND the imprisonment for certain years even though Mr. XX is guilty.  The Korean Criminal Act provides that a married person who commits adultery shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years.  However, the Act also provides the execution of the sentence for an adultery can be

Two Korean Internet Portal Giants Prosecuted for Aiding Copyright Infringement

Last December 23, the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office prosecuted NHN corporation, the operator of Naver (the largest Internet portal in Korea) and Daum Communications Co., the operatot of Daum for copyright infringement.

The prosecutors said two Internet portals have been aiding copyright infringement of their users by ignoring copyright holders(The Korea Music Copyright Association and the Korea Association of Phonogram Producers) request for removing illegal music files on their sites and taking no actions.  The prosecutors found 10 millions of uploaded music files

Chung & Partners Succesfully Defended its Client in a High Profile Criminal Case

Last September, Supreme Porsecutors Office(SPO) investigated the ex-head of Military Mutual Aid Association(MMAA) and his son as they had received 30,000 stocks of Kenertec, a Korean Energy company, from its representative in response to securing investments from the MMAA.

Mr. Wonil Chung, a partner of Chung & Partners, represented the son and succeeded in making the SPO drop the charge and not prosecuting him.

Afterward, the SPO prosecuted only the ex-head of MMAA to the court, but last Friday, Seoul Central District Court sentenced not guilty stating there is no evidence that supports there had happened any illegal activities.

Under Korean Criminal Law, a person who, administering other’s business, receives property or obtains advantage from a 3rd party in response to an illegal solicitation

Lone Star Not Guilty in Stock Price Manipulating Case, Seoul High Court Reversed Lower Court’s Ruling

Today just a few hours ago, the Seoul High Court sentenced partly not guilty to the head of U.S. private equity fund Lone Star’s South Korean operations (Lone Star Advisory Korea).

Last February Seoul Central District Court had sentenced all guilty and had detained Mr. Paul Yoo, the head of Lone Star Advisory Korea, for stock rigging and misappropriation charges. Also the court had ordered Korea Exchange Bank and LSF-KEB Holdings SCA, a Belgium-based unit which holds Lone Star’s stake in KEB, to pay 25 billion won ($26.50 million) each in fines, saying both secured unfair profits as a result of the stock-rigging.

The defendants all had appealed and the Seoul Court today reversed and amended the lower court’s ruling, saying “as the Lone Star Fund did actually discuss a capital decrease in meeting of board of directors, there had been no falsehood in its reporting of possible capital decrease to the public and therefore no stock price manipulating”.

Also the High court found not guilty in Mr. Paul Yoo’s tax evasion charge and also found not guilty in 2 out of 4 misappropriation charges against Mr. Paul Yoo.  Finally the court sentenced  2 and half year of imprisonment to Mr. Paul Yoo, however, suspended the execution for 3 years.  Mr. Paul Yoo Has been released out of prison today by the court’s decree(see the photo).

Ex-Lehman Bros. Exec Arrested For Alleged Korea’s Biggest Stock Price Manipulation Case

It was reported that a former senior executive at the Korean unit of Lehman Brothers, a U.S. investment banking firm, was arrested for conspiring in one of the biggest stock price manipulations in Korea.  Seoul Central Prosecutors Office said on May 5 it had arrested a 41-year-old former executive director at Lehman Brothers’ Seoul Office.  Here is the news article.

© 2008 Wonil Chung, a Korean Security Lawyer/Chung & Partners, a Korean Security Law Firm.  All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owners.

Prosecutors Investigating British American Tobacco Korea’s Illegal Lobbying Activities in Tax Evasion Case

On April 17, Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office announced that it has started an investigation whether British American Tobacco Korea(“BAT Korea”), which has the largest shares in Korean tobacco markets, had done illegal lobbying activities in order to downscale the Seoul Regional Tax Service’s probe into its 2006 tax evasion case.  Last year, Seoul Regional Tax Service discovered that BAT Korea evaded taxes on 108.2 billion won ($109.35 million) of profit and other tax evading issues come out.  BAT Korea has denied the accusation.  You can read a related news article here.

© 2008 Wonil Chung, a Korean Criminal Lawyer/Chung & Partners, a Korean Criminal Law Firm.  All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owners.

How to Cope with Harassment or Stalking under Korean Laws

Recently I got a question from a foreigner.  She was wondering if she could take any legal actions against her Korean ex-employee who harassed her by stating false information about her and telling her customers not to do a business with her.

From a perspective of Korean Criminal law, currently there is no general law on harassment or stalking thing.  The respective laws have its own regulations on which behavior constitutes a certain crime is not.

Generally speaking, A person who defames another by publicly alleging facts (false or not) shall be punished by imprisonment or imprisonment without prison labor for not more than two years or by a fine not exceeding five million won.  Also, if the ex-employee’s act can be interpreted as he interfered with her business by circulating false facts or through fraudulent means, or by the threat of force, it constitutes a crime of interference of business and he shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or by a fine not exceeding fifteen million won.  Also she might request for compensation or damage resulted from his unlawful acts.  Provisional disposition for prohibition of approach could be applied in Korea.  However these shall be considered further with more accurate information provided.

So, in a legal standpoint, she may warn him to stop doing that kind of act or he’ll be in a danger of being charged in Korea.  In this case send the warning letter in the name of Korean lawyer is strongly recommended. It is not hard to see, in Korea, people stop violating one’s legal right after receiving a lawyer’s warning letter and recognizing illegality of his or her behavior.

Also please make sure to gather and file every evidence of the person’s illegal acts preparing for possible legal disputes in Korea.

© 2008 Wonil Chung, a Korean Criminal Lawyer/Chung & Partners, a Korean Criminal Law Firm.  All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owners.