Park Soo-hong’s older brother gets final 3 years and 6 months prison sentence for embezzling tens of billions of won in appearance fees

The Supreme Court of Korea has upheld the conviction of TV personality Park Soo-hong’s 55-year-old older brother, who was sentenced to prison for embezzling tens of billions of won in Park’s appearance fees and other income, The Financial News reported.
According to the legal community on the 26th, a panel of the Supreme Court’s First Division, presided over by Justice Shin Sook-hee of the Supreme Court’s First Division, finalized the lower court ruling that sentenced Park (57) to a prison term and his wife Lee (54) to a suspended prison term, rejecting their appeals in the final trial on charges including violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (embezzlement).
From 2011 to 2021, over a period of 10 years, the couple ran two entertainment management agencies, Rael and Media Boom. They were indicted on charges of embezzling Park Soo-hong’s appearance fees and other income by disguising them as fake labor costs and by using corporate credit cards for personal expenses.
In the first trial, the Seoul Western District Court found that Park had embezzled 2.1 billion won and sentenced him to two years in prison. His wife was acquitted.
The Seoul High Court in the second trial handed down a heavier sentence than the first instance. It increased Park’s prison term to three years and six months and ordered him taken into custody in the courtroom. Unlike the first court, which treated the fact that the victimized company was a family-owned business as a special mitigating factor, the appellate court viewed it as a special aggravating factor and raised the sentence. For his wife Lee, it overturned the first court’s acquittal and sentenced her to one year in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered her to perform 120 hours of community service.
The Supreme Court of Korea found no fault with the lower court’s judgment, dismissed the defendants’ appeals, and thus confirmed the appellate ruling.
hwlee@fnnews.com Lee Hwan-joo Reporter