PR agency head acquitted of fraud

By Chung Hyun-chae

Park Soo-hwan

A district court acquitted Park Soo-hwan, head of PR agency News Communications that was conducting PR for Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), on charges of fraud and extortion, Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence.

The Seoul Central District Court cleared Park of receiving 2 billion won ($1.7 million) in PR fees from DSME in return for lobbying policymakers and Min Yoo-sung, former president of the Korea Development Bank (KDB), to help the shipbuilder’s former CEO Nam Sang-tae to extend his term.

The bank is the largest shareholder and main creditor of the shipbuilding company.

“Given that Nam was expecting that he could serve consecutive terms, it is unlikely that he asked Park for additional help,” the court said.

Min also testified in the previous hearing that he had not considered other figures as CEO of DSME, which affected the ruling.

Park, 59, was also acquitted of charges of deceiving Kumho Asiana Group by receiving 1.1 million won for illegally providing them with lawsuit strategies or consulting regarding legal issues under the pretext of PR services.

“It is hard to recognize it as fraud if there are no tangible outcomes,” the court said.

The prosecution earlier demanded seven years in prison and 2.1 billion won fine for Park.