CJ, POSCO, Kumho implicated in bribery case

By Lee Kyung-min

Officials at CJ Logistics, POSCO Engineering & Construction (E&C), Kumho Industrial and SK Engineering & Construction (E&C) were convicted Monday of accepting money from subcontractors in return for giving them construction work.

The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced officials from CJ Logistics and POSCO E&C to two years in prison, and handed down a year-and-a-half term an official of Kumho. The CJ official was indicted for receiving up to 490 million won until April from a construction supervision service provider in return for helping the construction arm of CJ win a contract in building a new terminal in February 2013.

Officials of POSCO E&C and Kumho were indicted for receiving 410 million won and 300 million won, respectively, from the same service provider in return for their respective roles in inking contracts to earn money for their services.

The court said the three deserved harsh punishment as they led the service provider to prioritize efforts in lobbying and offering bribes to officials that had influence over coming up with a competent plan to complete the construction. The amount they received was large, it added.

The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced an SK official to two years in prison, ordering him to forfeit 183 million won in illicit gains.

The man surnamed Park was indicted for receiving the money from a subcontractor in return for granting various favors it sought at a construction site.

Park was also charged with embezzling 130 million won in company funds. He did so by asking the company to pay subcontractors up to 30 million won more in payment on numerous occasions and repeatedly pocketing the difference.

The court said his repeated offense gravely undermined the credibility of landing contracts and carrying out construction. Public trust in the sector, it added, would subsequently be eroded.

The rulings come amid a widening prosecution investigation into many builders here over similar bribery allegations.

The prosecution and police recently raided the headquarters of SK E&C and Lotte E&C, repspectively, over allegations that officials there received money in return for handing out construction contracts.