Former Coast Guard chief gets prison term over bribery

SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court sentenced a former maritime police chief to 18 months in jail on Tuesday for pocketing more than 30 million won (US$28,000) in bribes in return for peddling his influence over a construction site deal.
The Seoul Eastern District Court also ruled that former Korea Coast Guard chief Lee Gil-bum should pay a fine of 30 million won and forfeit 33 million won, the equivalent of the bribes he took from a lobbyist.
He was immediately imprisoned at court after receiving his sentence.
Lee, 57, who led the maritime police agency between 2009-10, was indicted on charges that he took the bribes last year from a broker, Yoo Sang-bong, who sought Lee's influence over winning a lucrative deal to run a cafeteria for construction workers building a regional coast guard training school.
"A strict penalty is inevitable since the amount of bribes reached 33 million won," Judge Seol Beom-shik said. "Although the defendant honestly and sincerely led a 30-year-long public career as a police official, (he deserves the punishment) given the integrity and morality required to lead the Korea Coast Guard," the judge said.
Lee is one of several senior officials implicated in the bribery scandal involving the broker, now under arrest on charges of paying off high-profile officials in a series of deals to win the rights to run restaurants near construction sites.
Also embroiled in the scandal is Kang Hee-rak, a former police chief, who was indicted on charges of pocketing a massive amount of bribes in a similar influence-peddling case.
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