Top court confirms suspended prison term for ex-lawmaker in daughter's hiring scandal

Former conservative lawmaker Kim Sung-tae at the headquarters of the People Power Party in this April 22, 2021 file photo. Korea Times file

The Supreme Court confirmed Thursday a suspended prison sentence imposed on a former opposition lawmaker, who was convicted of illegally asking a former chief of KT to hire his daughter as a regular worker in exchange for favors.

Kim Sung-tae, a former floor leader of what is now the main opposition People Power Party, was indicted on charges of intervening in National Assembly affairs to help prevent former KT chief Lee Suk-chae from being selected as a witness for an audit in 2012 in exchange for a full-time position for his daughter, who was working as a non-regular employee at the mobile carrier.

Kim's daughter was hired as a permanent employee at KT the same year.

However, the Seoul Southern District Court in 2020 acquitted Kim, saying it was true his daughter got the job inappropriately but that Kim cannot be convicted of bribery, as he was not the one who received benefits.

But an appeals court overturned the ruling and sentenced him to one year in prison, suspended for two years, saying his daughter's hiring amounts to a bribe to Kim under social norms.

The appeals court also said at the time Kim's acts of receiving a bribe in the form of a hiring opportunity for his daughter was worthy of condemnation, as he was a three-term lawmaker and a member of the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee at the time.

On Thursday, the top court also confirmed the same suspended prison term for Lee, the former KT CEO, for illegal hiring and bribery. (Yonhap)