By Lee Kyung-min
A district court sentenced former presidential secretary Park Bum-hoon to three years in prison, Friday, for receiving 100 million won in bribes from Doosan Group in exchange for abusing his power to help Chung-Ang University, which is owned by the conglomerate.
He was the university president until 2011, before moving to Cheong Wa Dae as secretary for education.
The Seoul Central District Court also fined him 30 million won, and ordered him to forfeit 37 million won he illegally gained during his term in office from 2011 to 2012.
The court sentenced Park Yong-sung, former Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction chairman and the university’s foundation head, to 10 months in prison suspended for two years for paying the bribes to Park Bum-hoon.
The court said that the former presidential secretary abused his position by ordering education ministry officials to lift a ban on Doosan’s school.
Earlier, the education ministry banned the university from enrolling new students after it failed to secure enough land to be qualified as a legitimate educational institution.
“Park Bum-hoon told the officials to suspend the administrative order, and prevented them from conducting a fair investigation into the matter. He obstructed the official duty of the ministry officials,” the judge said.
The court also found him guilty of receiving some 30 million won from Doosan through a traditional music foundation, where he is chief director.
Park was cleared of embezzlement and fraud charges, but convicted of violating the Private School Law.
The two Parks were indicted in May over a number of corrupt deals involving Doosan Group and Chung-Ang University Foundation.
The prosecution had demanded seven years in prison, a 250-million won fine, and a forfeiture of some 100 million won for Park Bum-hoon; and five years in prison for Park Yong-sung.
Park Yong-sung resigned as foundation head and Doosan Heavy chairman in April after an email to Chung-Ang professors containing abusive language and threats was made public.