ID :
182899
Wed, 05/18/2011 - 13:10
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/182899
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Two S. Korean businessmen indicted for bribing Chinese official
INCHEON, May 18 (Yonhap) -- Two South Korean businessmen were indicted Wednesday on charges of bribing a Chinese official in return for business favors, the Incheon prosecution said.
The Chinese official, the head of a state-run Chinese air carrier's Korean office, was arrested and accused of taking the bribes, the prosecution said.
All the names of those indicted and their companies were withheld.
The 56-year-old head of a South Korean aviation logistics firm, one of the two Koreans indicted, is suspected of giving a total of 5.3 billion won (US$4.8 million) to the Chinese man in exchange for dominating the carrier's air freight transportation bound for China and getting the service at a low price from May 2006 to January this year, according to prosecutors.
The second Korean, who runs a tourism agency in South Korea, was accused of giving 1.4 billion won to the Chinese man in exchange for rights to sell the airline's flight tickets to China, said investigators.
Prosecutors said the two Koreans are the first people to be indicted in South Korea based on the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, which encourages signatory countries to punish their nationals for giving bribes to foreign public officials. A South Korean domestic law on implementing the anti-bribery convention came into force in 1999.
"This is the first case in which the law was applied, and we expect that it will help investigators protect transparency in international transactions," said an official from the prosecution.
The investigators said they indicted two other South Korean men for blackmailing the Chinese official and helping him flee, respectively.
The Chinese official, the head of a state-run Chinese air carrier's Korean office, was arrested and accused of taking the bribes, the prosecution said.
All the names of those indicted and their companies were withheld.
The 56-year-old head of a South Korean aviation logistics firm, one of the two Koreans indicted, is suspected of giving a total of 5.3 billion won (US$4.8 million) to the Chinese man in exchange for dominating the carrier's air freight transportation bound for China and getting the service at a low price from May 2006 to January this year, according to prosecutors.
The second Korean, who runs a tourism agency in South Korea, was accused of giving 1.4 billion won to the Chinese man in exchange for rights to sell the airline's flight tickets to China, said investigators.
Prosecutors said the two Koreans are the first people to be indicted in South Korea based on the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, which encourages signatory countries to punish their nationals for giving bribes to foreign public officials. A South Korean domestic law on implementing the anti-bribery convention came into force in 1999.
"This is the first case in which the law was applied, and we expect that it will help investigators protect transparency in international transactions," said an official from the prosecution.
The investigators said they indicted two other South Korean men for blackmailing the Chinese official and helping him flee, respectively.
