Appellate court upholds 4-year prison term for Cho Kuk’s wife

Aug 12, 2021, 09:30 am

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Chung Kyung-shim, the wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, attends her trial session at the Seoul District Court on December 23, 2020./ Photographed by Song Eui-joo

AsiaToday reporters Lee Min-young & Kim Ye-seul

An appellate court has upheld a four-year prison sentence for Chung Kyung-shim, a professor of Dongyang University and the wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was indicted on a series of corruption charges. Immediately after the appellate court’s ruling, the former justice minister revealed that he would appeal.

The Seoul High Court on Wednesday found Chung guilty of all charges related to the unfair college admission of her daughter Cho Min and upheld the lower court’s sentence of four years. However, it lowered her fine from 500 million won to 50 million won and her forfeiture from 140 million won to 10 million won.

The court said Cho Min’s internships at prestigious institutions, including the Medical Science Research Institute of Dankook University, the Biotechnology Research Institute of Kongju National University, the Center for Public Interests and Human Rights Law of Seoul National University and KIST, were all fabricated.

“The internship certificate is falsified, and the lower court’s judgment that the accused participated in Cho Kuk’s certificate making is justified,” the court said. “Except for Cho Min’s statement regarding her internship, there is no evidence that she received an assignment from Han In-seop, Director of the Center for Public Interests and Human Rights Law, before the seminar and studied with a human rights club student. Cho’s classmates surnamed Jang and Park, who received the same internship certificate, stated that they had never been involved in such activity.”

The court found Chung partially guilty of some charges in connection with a private equity fund, but found her not guilty of other charges on violating the Capital Market Act using undisclosed important information. “Chung only acquired 100,000 shares from Kolink Private Equity, therefore she did not use undisclosed information to benefit from information imbalance,” the court said.

“It is really painful as a family member,” former Justice Minister Cho Kuk said on his social network service after the court’s ruling. He said he would appeal and bring the case to the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Chung was brought to trial on charges of fabricating documents and obstructing the admission process of two medical schools to help her daughter gain admission at the medical schools.

#Cho Kuk #Chung Kyung-shim