Lenient outcome · Comparison Pair · Bribery
Senior official acquitted: lavish dinners 'split below ₩1M each'
Harm
Cumulative ~₩10M, each occurrence < ₩1M
Sentence
Acquittal
Court
District Court
Guideline
—
Comparison thesis
₩50,000 in one envelope ends a career. ₩10,000,000 across many dinners is acquitted.
Strict outcome
₩100만 fine
Fine + dismissal
Low-rank civil servant fired for accepting a ₩50,000 envelope
Public official · Harm: ₩50,000 (~$38)
Lenient outcome · current case
Acquittal
Acquittal — sub-threshold per occurrence
Senior official acquitted: lavish dinners 'split below ₩1M each'
Public official · Harm: Cumulative ~₩10M, each occurrence < ₩1M
The Kim Young-ran Act draws bright lines at ₩1M per occurrence and ₩3M per period — bright lines that sophisticated defendants can engineer around, but ordinary low-rank officials cannot.
Case summary
A senior official received repeated entertainment from a businessman over months. Each dinner — by the court's accounting — fell below the ₩1,000,000 single-occurrence threshold under the Kim Young-ran Act. Because the law's more severe criminal penalties apply only above that line, the court acquitted, despite total entertainment well above ₩10 million.
Disparity flags
Sources
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