Man Caught for Brokering Draft-Dodging
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Police are questioning a 32-year-old man on suspicion of helping a group of draftees dodge their mandatory two-year military service by swapping their medical records with those of bona-fide patients.
MBC TV reported that at least 16 people were involved in the new type of draft-dodging, which could develop into one of the biggest draft scandals with slackers including a famous singer surnamed Kim, a son of an influential figure and a car racer.
The broker, identified only as Yoon, contracted with cardiac insufficiency patients who are exempted from military service due to their illness. The broker used patients who visited the hospital to submit medical insurance cards of his ``clients,’’ making it appear that the latter had the condition.
With the swapped medical records, they were able to be either exempted from military services or undertake alternative service. In return, the broker received up to 100 million won ($83,000) to each of the contracted patients.
``In emergency rooms at hospitals, medical workers generally do not check the identity of patients suffering from cardiac insufficiency. They just take medical insurance cards and that’s it,’’ the broker told MBC.
``Those who want alternative services pay 20 to 30 million won, while those who hope to be exempted pay around 100 million won,’’ he said.
To check whether or not some doctors were involved in the illegal activity, police raided four university-affiliated hospitals, MBC said.
The country has seen recurrent draft-dodging scandals over the past decades.
For example, professional baseball players and brokers were caught dodging military services by faking tests to pretend that they had critical kidney ailments back in 2004.