Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Daughter, wife of late Hanjin Group chief get suspended jail terms
By Bahk Eun-ji
Cho Hyun-ah, the eldest daughter of late Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, and her mother Lee Myung-hee have been sentenced to suspended prison terms for smuggling luxury goods into the country on multiple occasions using Korean Air planes.
Korean Air is a subsidiary of the Hanjin Group.
Incheon District Court sentenced Cho, 45, a former Korean Air executive vice president, to eight months in prison suspended for two years, Thursday, fined her 4.8 million won ($4,045) and ordered her to forfeit 63 million won for bringing in personal goods purchased abroad without paying taxes.
Lee Myung-hee, left, and Cho Hyun-ah /Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
The late chairman's wife and Ilwoo Foundation director Lee, 70, was also sentenced to six months in prison suspended for one year, fined 700,000 won and ordered to forfeit 37 million won on the same charges.
The punishments were lighter than the prosecution's earlier requests of 16 months of prison for Cho and one year for Lee.
The court also ordered the two to carry out 80 hours of community service.
Cho and two Korean Air employees were accused of smuggling luxury goods worth 88 million won, including designer clothes and purses, which she bought in overseas online shopping malls, on 202 occasions between January 2012 and May 2018 by using Korean Air flights after identifying the goods as items bought for the company.
Lee was charged with smuggling 37 million won worth of goods including pottery, fruit and ornaments, 46 times on the company's airplanes from May 2013 to March last year. She was also accused of making false reports to the customs office stating Korean Air imported luxury furniture worth 35 million won, which she actually bought for personal use, between January and July 2014.
Cho and Lee appeared at the court and pled guilty to the charges.
“The number of offenses they committed and the amount of smuggled goods are not small at all, but most of them were for their personal use and their acts did not disturb the market order,” the court said.
It suspended handing down a verdict on the two Korean Air employees who abetted their smuggling.
Cho and Lee are also on trial separately for illegally hiring Filipina housekeepers after falsely reporting they were hired by Korean Air.
Cho gained notoriety for a “nut rage” scandal, in which she delayed a flight from New York in 2014 because she was angry at the way a flight attendant served her macadamia nuts. Lee has been accused of multiple assault cases against workers at her home and the company.