Supreme Court upholds suspended fine for ex-prosecutor who fabricated Kim Hak-eui report

By Yang Geun-hyuk, The Herald Business

The Supreme Court has upheld a suspended fine against former prosecutor Lee Gyu-won — now the Cho Guk Innovation Party's regional committee chair for Wonju — who was charged with fabricating interview reports during an investigation into sexual entertainment allegations against former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-eui.

The Supreme Court's Third Division, presided over by Justice Lee Suk-yeon, on Thursday affirmed the lower court's decision to suspend a 2 million won ($1,310) fine against Lee. He had been indicted on charges including fabrication of official documents, use of fabricated official documents, disclosure of official secrets, violation of the Personal Information Protection Act, obstruction of business, defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act, and violation of the Electronic Criminal Procedure Act. A suspended sentence is a legal mechanism under which a court acknowledges the offense but, finding it minor, defers punishment for a set period — if no further incident occurs during that period, the sentence is not imposed.

The court found "no error in the lower court's guilty verdict that would constitute a violation of the rules of logic and experience, an overstepping of the bounds of free evaluation of evidence, or a misapplication of the law governing the crimes of fabricating official documents, using fabricated official documents, violating the Personal Information Protection Act, violating the Electronic Criminal Procedure Act, the specificity of the charges, or justifiable conduct."

Lee served as a member of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Truth Investigation Committee from November 2018 to May 2019, while still an active prosecutor. The committee was probing the so-called "villa sexual entertainment" allegations against Kim. During that investigation, Lee was accused of fabricating interview reports by inserting statements never made by key figures in the case — including construction businessman Yun Jung-cheon and former Cheong Wa Dae administrative official Park Gwan-cheon — and of leaking the contents to a media outlet.

The first-instance court suspended a 500,000 won fine. It found Lee guilty of fabricating official documents — specifically, of reconstructing from memory, without an official recording, statements from three interviews with Yun and writing them up falsely — but determined that the falsified portions of the reports were not substantial. Lee was acquitted on all remaining charges.

The appellate court reversed the first-instance acquittals on the Personal Information Protection Act and Electronic Criminal Procedure Act violations, finding Lee guilty on both counts and suspending a 2 million won fine. Those charges related to his alleged disclosure of personal information obtained during interviews and his unauthorized sharing of information accessed through the Korea Information System of Criminal Justice Services, known as KICS.

The appellate court found that Lee "leaked personal information contained in interview results obtained during the truth investigation by passing them to a journalist, and engaged in unlawful conduct including the improper use of another person's criminal justice information to secure cooperation with the investigation." The court nonetheless took into account mitigating circumstances — among them that the case had drawn significant public attention, that numerous media outlets had already gathered a substantial amount of information, and that Lee appeared to have approached journalists in an effort to obtain statements that reflected the truth.