Permanent special prosecutor summons Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun for third time... Eom says, "Moon Ji-seok’s claims are false"

[Financial News] The permanent special prosecutor’s team on the Gwanbong rights and Coupang case, headed by Ahn Gwon-seob, has summoned Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office (former head of the Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office) for a third round of questioning as part of its probe into alleged external pressure on the "Coupang case" investigation.
At around 10 a.m. on the 19th, Eom appeared wearing a black coat at the Centro Building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, where the special prosecutor’s office is located. Asked by reporters what he had explained during the previous questioning, Eom replied, "The text messages show, as objective physical evidence, that I never pressured Prosecutor Shin Ga-hyun to clear the case." He went on, "I want to stress that it has been clearly proven that the claims by Chief Prosecutor Moon Ji-seok, who alleges I exerted such pressure, are lies."
Eom continued, "There was a case handled by the Anyang Branch of the Suwon District Court involving a similar type of incident, and the reasoning in that acquittal is the same as what was reviewed at the Bucheon Branch." He argued, "Because the ruling states in effect that there is no problem when severance pay is reset, I believe it already provides an answer to whether the Bucheon Branch’s decision not to indict was unjust."
The special prosecutor’s team summoned Eom that day as a suspect on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights. This is his third questioning, following sessions on the 9th of last month and the 9th of this month. With the investigation deadline set for the 5th of next month, the team is expected to focus on why the "Coupang unpaid severance" allegations were closed without indictment and whether Eom pressured Chief Prosecutor Moon, who was in charge of the case at the time, to issue a no-charge decision.
The "Coupang unpaid severance" allegations center on claims that Coupang Fulfillment Services (CFS) changed its work rules in May 2023 to the disadvantage of workers and withheld payments that were in effect severance benefits. At the time, CFS revised its severance rule from "for daily workers who work for more than one year, only periods with less than 15 working hours per week are excluded" to "workers must have worked for more than one year and at least 15 hours per week." Under the revised rule, if there is even a single four-week period in which the average weekly working hours fall below 15, the severance calculation period must be reset from day one, even for employees with more than one year of service. This drew criticism as a "severance pay reset rule."
In January last year, the Bucheon Branch of the Jungbu Regional Employment and Labor Office referred the case to the Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office with a recommendation to indict. The Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office ultimately decided in April last year not to indict in connection with these allegations. However, Chief Prosecutor Moon, who led the investigative team, has asserted that during the non-indictment process, Eom and then-Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kim Dong-hee pressured the team to issue a no-charge decision.
Eom has countered that this is "a one-sided false accusation by Chief Prosecutor Moon," maintaining that "the decision not to indict was made based on the judgment that there were no legal issues."
Meanwhile, on the 3rd, the special prosecutor’s team overturned the earlier prosecution decision by indicting without detention current CFS CEO Jeong Jong-chul, former CEO Eom Sung-hwan, and the CFS corporation itself on charges of violating the Act on the Guarantee of Employees' Retirement Benefits.
The special prosecutor’s team believes that in April 2023, they unilaterally decided at CFS to exclude periods worked as daily employees from the statutory severance calculation period and, as a result, failed to pay a total of about 123.82 million won in severance to 40 workers.


kyu0705@fnnews.com Kim Dong-gyu Reporter