SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Byung Chang Lee, DR & AJU LLC
1.2 Causes of Action After Receipt of a Bribe The So-Called Kim Young-Ran Act From the perspective of criminal law in Korea, receipt of a bribe can constitute a serious viola - tion of the Criminal Act in addition to the so- called Kim Young-ran Act, which prohibits a person from providing a gift or benefit beyond a certain amount of money to a public officer, or someone with a similar position. This Act is named after the former Supreme Court justice of Korea who had proposed such a regulation in order to prevent widely prevalent acts of giving and taking gifts in the so-called Gap-Eul rela - tionship in Korea. The coverage can extend to gifts or benefits that are not related to a ben - efit in return, that is, the typical character of a bribe; therefore, the aforementioned act can cover broad areas beyond the typical coverage of bribery. Special Regulations on Employees of Financial Institutions If an employee of a financial institution accepts, demands or promises to receive money, valu - ables or other benefits in connection with their duties, or if they provide such to a third party, they can be punished pursuant to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, etc. An example of where this provi - sion applies is when a bank employee receives money in exchange for a convenience during the bank loan process. The law requires finan - cial institutions to have integrity of an equivalent standard to public officials. However, there has been some controversy over whether it is correct to regard the duties of employees of financial institutions as the same as those of public officials, and whether it is rea - sonable to treat employees of financial institu -
tions differently from employees of other private companies. Other Causes of Action From the perspective of civil law, bribery can be one of the factors that constitutes a tort claim against the person who has provided or received a bribe, either directly or through their agent. From the perspective of administrative law, the act of giving and taking a bribe can constitute a relevant violation of government procurement acts, which can extend to sanctions such as pre - vention of future participation in governmental bid procedures. In accordance with government procurement acts, a person who has commit - ted a fraudulent act shall not be entitled to par - ticipate in a bid for no more than two years, or a penalty surcharge can be imposed in lieu of it. Recently, cases of being sanctioned by the Multilateral Banks for committing fraud in bid - ding processes have emerged; this is a concern for Korean companies as the Multilateral Banks’ sanctions are very strict in terms of the sanction period and conditions for relief. 1.3 Claims Against Parties Who Assist or Facilitate Fraudulent Acts The Illegality of Assistance or Facilitation of Fraudulent Acts From a criminal law perspective, the acts of assisting or facilitating the fraudulent acts of another can constitute criminal violations such as conspiracy or aiding/abetting of another’s criminal acts, depending on the magnitude of assistance or facilitation. There is not yet a clear line dividing conspiracy and aiding/abet - ting depending on specific situations; however, any kind of assistance or facilitation of another’s fraudulent acts can be punished under the crimi - nal law.
323 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook