SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jeena Kim, Kyunghwan Lee, Eunyoung Row and Bochan Kim, Bae, Kim & Lee LLC
4. Defences and Exceptions 4.1 Defences No defence is available under South Korean leg - islation.
See also 3.3 Corporate Liability regarding the vicarious liability exception. A corporation will not be found liable for the actions of its employ - ees if the corporation can demonstrate that it discharged its duty to adequately supervise those employees.
4.2 Exceptions See 4.1 Defences . 4.3 De Minimis Exceptions
5. Penalties for Violations 5.1 Penalties on Conviction
No de minimis exception is applicable to bribery in general. However, please see 2.1 Bribery for certain exceptions applicable to gifts and enter - tainment with a monetary threshold. 4.4 Exempt Sectors/Industries No specific sectors or industries are exempt from the anti-bribery regime. 4.5 Safe Harbour or Amnesty Programme There are no safe harbour or amnesty pro - grammes based on self-reporting or compliance procedures/remediation efforts under Korean law. However, Article 51 of the Criminal Act requires the following factors to be considered when determining a sentence: • the offender’s age, character, intelligence and environment; • the relationship with the victim; • the motive, means and outcome of the crime; and • the circumstances after the crime Among the foregoing factors, the “circumstanc - es after the crime” includes factors such as self-reporting, adequate compliance procedures and remediation efforts, which are considered favourable circumstances.
The criminal consequences are different depend - ing on the type of the bribery and corruption offences under the following provisions. Violation of the Domestic Public Official Bribery Offence Under the Criminal Code Article 129(1) of the Criminal Code A recipient of a bribe may face up to five years’ imprisonment. Article 2(1) of the Specific Crimes Act A recipient of a bribe may face an aggravated penalty of five years’ imprisonment up to life imprisonment if the amount received is KRW30 million or more, depending on the exact amount of the bribe. Article 2(2) the Specific Crimes Act An additional fine of two to five times the amount of the bribe could be imposed, regardless of the amount of the bribe. Article 133(1) of the Criminal Code A giver of a bribe may face up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW20 million. Violation of the Domestic Private Commercial Bribery Offence Under the Criminal Code Article 357(1) of the Criminal Code A recipient of a bribe may face up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW10 million.
383 CHAMBERS.COM
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