Former vice minister sentenced to suspended jail term for influence peddling

SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- A former vice defense minister was sentenced to a suspended jail term on Friday for receiving money from a businessman in return for using his official influence in winning a public construction deal.
The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced Chang Soo-man, a former chief the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, to a one-year prison term, suspended for two years, for taking 10 million won (US$8,476) worth of gift certificates from a local construction company while in office between August 2010 and Feburary 2011.
Chang, who previously worked as head of the national procurement agency and a vice defense minister, was also fined 20 million won along with an order to return 8 million won in gift cards and forfeit another 2 million won.
He took the financial reward from Seo Jong-uk, the president of leading builder Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., in return for peddling his influence as a public official in helping the builder secure a construction deal, the court said.
But the court found him not guilty of receiving bribes from Yoo Sang-bong, a lobbyist accused of brokering a number of contracts to operate lucrative makeshift cafeterias at construction sites and bribing officials of construction firms and police in the process.
Chang was indicted on charges of receiving 45 million won from the lobbyist from 2008-09 while he served as head of the Public Procurement Service and later as a defense vice minister.
"Although the defendant's acceptance of the financial reward from the broker was acknowledged, it could not be accepted as having been linked to his role (in sealing actual deals)," the court said.



The broker Yoo, however, was sentenced to two years behind bars for lobbying to seven public officials with 350 million won.
Kang Hee-rak, a former police chief, was among the seven lobbied. Kang was sentenced to six years in prison in August on bribe-taking charges.