SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jeena Kim, Kyunghwan Lee, Eunyoung Row and Bochan Kim, Bae, Kim & Lee LLC
ACRC Anyone who becomes aware of violations of the Graft Act, corrupt activities or violations of the CoC may report them to the ACRC. Upon receiving reports, the ACRC verifies basic infor - mation about the reporter, the circumstances of the report and its purpose. It may request the submission of documents that are necessary to verify the authen - ticity of the reported information. If the ACRC deems an audit, investigation or inquiry to be necessary with respect to the reported matters, it must refer them to the BAI, or to the relevant agency depending on the nature of the offence. If the report involves matters requiring investigation/ prosecution of a high-ranking public official, the ACRC must file a complaint with the prosecutors or with the relevant agency depending on the nature of the offence. The Corruption Investigation Office for High- Ranking Officials (the “Corruption Investigation Office”) The Corruption Investigation Office was established in early 2020 with the authority to investigate crimes allegedly committed by high-ranking public officials. Such officials include: • the President; • members of the National Assembly; • members of the judiciary; • prosecutors; • certain public officials in political service; • police officers above the rank of superintendent; • military officers of the rank of General or higher; and • persons who held the above positions within the last three years. • the head of a local government; • the superintendent of education; The Corruption Investigation Office may also inves - tigate the family members of high-ranking public officials, including extending investigations to the President’s first cousins. It also holds the power to
initiate and continue prosecution against high-ranking public officials. The scope of its investigations is lim - ited to offences that were specifically designated for the office to address upon its establishment, such as corruption-related crimes (eg, bribery). Other Administrative Agencies For investigation of violations of anti-corruption law in certain specific industries (such as the pharmaceuti - cals industry), the prosecution may also form a joint task force with the relevant administrative agencies (eg, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety). 7.3 Jurisdictional Reach of Enforcement Bodies The jurisdictions of the prosecutor’s office and the police in this context are the same as with respect to their reach under criminal law. The BAI supervises the duties of administrative agencies and public officials. The ACRC is responsible for preventing corruption in public officials, public institutions and non-profit private organisations. The Corruption Investigation Office has the authority to investigate and prosecute high-ranking public officials and their families. See 7.2 Enforcement Bodies . 7.4 Discretion for Mitigation and Aggravation Deferred prosecution agreements and non-prose - cution agreements are not available in South Korea. Whether or not to prosecute the defendant falls to the prosecutors’ discretion, and there is no statutory mechanism to allow negotiation or consultation with the defendant regarding whether to prosecute such defendant. 7.5 Recent Landmark Investigations or Decisions In 2016, South Korea underwent a major political and social scandal, commonly referred to as the “Choi Soon-sil Gate”, where former President Park Geun- hye and her close confidante were implicated in sig - nificant abuses of power. This scandal ended with the impeachment and removal of President Park. During the scandal, investigations revealed that top executives from major domestic conglomerates, allegedly under Presidential pressure, provided finan - cial contributions to sports teams and cultural foun -
211 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook