Justice is served but somehow it doesn’t feel cathartic, at least to me. Embattled and impeached former South Korea President Park Geun Hye has been sentenced by the court to 24 years in jail and a fine of 18 billion won ($16.9 million) for her corruption and abuse of office during her term of presidency which started off historically in 2013 as the first female president of the country. Her term in office went down the drain starting in late 2016 when news reports came to light about her close ties with Choi Soon Shil, the daughter of a cult leader, and together the two engaged in a slew of political misconduct that enriched their own coffers and interests.
It’s such a incredibly mindboggling list (see below after the jump) that South Koreans rose up in massive numbers to protest and both Park Geun Hye and Choi Soon Shil were arrested, and Park Geun Hye formally impeached as president. Earlier this year Choi Soon Shil was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a fine of 18 billion won as well. Good riddance to these two but in honestly they probably did many things done by predecessors in office and still done around the world, corruption is endemic but at least this one was addressed to the satisfaction of the South Korean people.
List of Park Geun Hye’s crimes and misconduct while in office as President:
- Made and kept a cultural Black List of nearly ten thousand entertainment industry and media individuals who either supported the opposition or went against the current administrations policies.
- Established the MIR and K-Sports Foundations as a pretext for her administration to rake in money by coercing SK businesses to fork over funds up to 77.4 billion won.
- Commanding the Hyundai Car Corporation to (1) deliver 1.1 billion won to the KD Corporation, owned by an acquaintance of Choi and (2) allow for a 7.1 won billion worth of advertisement for the Playground Entertainment group, which is owned by Choi Soon Shil.
- Ordering of the Lotte Group to pay out about 7 billion won to construct the K-Sports Hanam Sports Complex.
- Forcing the POSCO Group to establish a competitive fencing team. When POSCO told Park’s associates that due to poor management conditions it was impossible, they replied that “This is in the great interest of the Blue House”. POSCO chipped in 1.6 billion won to create the POSCO Fencing Team. Management duties were then given to the The Blue K Corporation (owned by Choi Soon Shil).
- Requested the KT Corporation to hire two of Choi’s friends in their advertisement department and make the Playground Corporation (owned by Choi Soon Shil) their official advertising agency.
- Compelled the Grand Korea Leisure Fencing Team to make The Blue K Corporation their agent company.
- Made the Samsung Group support the Korea Winter Sports Prodigy Center in the amount of 1.6 billion won.
- Requested Son Gyeng Shik the CJ Group’s CEO to fire his vice-chairman. CJ refused and was iced.
- From 2013 to 2016, leaked a total of 47 classified governmental files to Choi Soon Shil.
- Exchanged 7 billion won to the K-Sports Foundation from the Lotte Group to expedite the business of the Lotte Duty Free shop.
- Exchanged 8.9 billion won to the K-Sports Foundation from the SK Group for “assistance” in their takeover of the CJ Hello Vision, among other benefits.
- Made Samsung Group promise to support Chung Yooo Ra (daughter of Choi Soon Shil) in her equestrian endeavors amounting to 21.3 billion won, receiving 7.8 billion won of that amount to buy the best horses, the “Horse Laundering”.
- Together with Choi Soon Shil, demanded Samsung Group Vice-CEO Lee Jae Yong give the group various benefits in exchange of 1.6 billion won to the Korea Winter Sports Prodigy Center.
- Received “donations” of 20.4 billion won for the MI•R and K-Sports Foundations (12.5 and 7.9, respectively) from Samsung Group.
- Ordered executives and employees of the Arts Council, Korea Film Council, and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea interfere in the process of reviewing support for applicants, excluding support for all individuals in opposition to government policies.
- When the director of the Korean Equestrian Federation, Director Roh, pointed a problem in the Chung Yoo Ra/Choi Soon Shil cahoots situation in a report, demoted him out of a leadership role and made him resign.
- Ordered the CEO of the Hana Financial Group, Kim Jung Tae, to appoint a “Mr. Yi” to the 2nd Global Sales Manager position. “Mr. Yi” laid the groundwork for the deal between Samsung and Chung, the “Horse Laundering”.
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All these due to 2 grown women only?
I don’t think so. Both could perhaps were the scapegoat.
yep scapegoat...we will never know the extend of all who involve...
My experience watching several hundred Korean dramas tells me that, no, they weren't alone in their misdeeds and no doubt happened before. Hopefully, maybe, perhaps things are a tad bit cleaned up now but probably not.
The list above is astronomical and unbelievable. The corruption of power. They may not have been the only players, but they were certainly the two main offenders.
I'm glad the law has caught up with them. It demonstrates even the President of the country is not above the law. Hope it acts as a deterrant. If you do the crime, you need to do your time.
She had the honour of being the First Female President, yet was ruined in the end for greed. Now they will have to spend the rest of their lives incarceration.
Sad.Women who were supposed to be a source of inspiration and motivation for many other aapiring women leaders are icons of disappointment.
The amount of greed and corruption is so huge that it staggers the imagination. There were probably many others who received "gifts" for being part of this but remain free. How can two people be so incredibly corrupt?
Some get caught most never will and we will contine to idolise those without knowing unless they too are exposed...the fight must continue to expose as many of the glorified as possible.
This whole scheme to take down Park Geun Hye is a total farce. Interesting that all of her "crimes" were against huge corporations like Lotte Group and Samsung. Just goes to show that you can't make corporations angry because they run the world. If she had only raided social security or welfare funds for poor people instead, she would have been held up as a hero.