'Gobal Sajoo Whistleblower' Cho Seong-eun, Sentenced to Probation for Forging Party Membership Application

[Financial News] Cho Seong-eun, the so-called 'Gobal Sajoo Whistleblower', who was put on trial for allegedly manipulating membership applications during the process of founding a new party, was sentenced to probation in the first trial.
Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 9 (Judge Ko So-young) sentenced Mr. Cho to 1 year in prison with 2 years of probation for charges including forgery of private documents and violation of the Political Parties Act. Additionally, 40 hours of community service were ordered. Kim Jong-gu, former Ambassador to Mongolia, and Lee Jae-seop, former Chairman of the Gyeonggi-do Branch of the Brand New Party, who were also put on trial, were each sentenced to 6 months in prison with 1 year of probation.
The court stated, "The defendants received the list and made false reports by writing 1162 membership applications without any effort to confirm the individual intentions, and (former Ambassador Kim) facilitated the crime by providing the list," adding, "Although the crime may have been committed without much awareness of illegality, manipulating membership applications can undermine the credibility of party politics that represent political intentions and have a significant negative impact on elections."
Furthermore, "Despite this, Mr. Cho, who gains the most from this case, consistently shifts the blame for each crime to other defendants, showing poor character," the court noted, "However, considering that the false registration of the provincial party was withdrawn within 5 days, the risk of the crime becoming a reality was not realized."
However, after the sentencing, Mr. Cho told reporters, "Despite confessions that could prove innocence during the prosecution's confrontation investigation, the content was not reflected in the indictment, and all the defendants' claims were rejected in court," adding, "I plan to appeal immediately."
Mr. Cho and others were put on trial for allegedly forging 1162 membership applications in February 2020 to fill the 5000 members needed to establish a new party called 'Brand New Party'.
At that time, Mr. Cho, who was the chairman of the founding preparation committee, was in a situation where he needed to recruit 5000 members to merge with the Future United Party, which was about to be launched. When registering a party's city or provincial branch, membership applications containing the names, dates of birth, addresses, contact information, and occupations of members whose intentions have been confirmed must be attached.
On February 14, 2020, Mr. Cho sent a message to former Ambassador Kim saying, 'Sir, it's an urgent SOS. How many members does the Hapkido Association have? We need to secure as many (members) as possible,' asking for a list of people to be recruited as members.
Former Ambassador Kim called the Secretary General of the Overseas Veterans Association the next day, saying, "If you lend me the list of the Hapkido Association or the Overseas Veterans Association, I will copy and use it beneficially," and later received data containing the personal information of 18,197 Vietnam War veterans.
Accordingly, the prosecution viewed that Mr. Cho, based on the list, forged 1162 membership applications in the names of Vietnam War veterans together with former Chairman Lee. In the previous sentencing hearing, the prosecution requested a sentence of 1 year and 6 months in prison for Mr. Cho, stating, "He does not acknowledge the crime at all and does not even reflect."

welcome@fnnews.com Jang Yu-ha Reporter