Chung Kyung-sim’s asset manager found guilty by Supreme Court

On Thursday, the Supreme Court confirmed the second instance ruling of probation of sentence imposed on Kim Kyung-rok, the asset manager of Chung Kyung-sim, a professor at Dongyang University and the wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, on charges of hiding computer hard drives at Chung’s instructions.

The Supreme Court confirmed the ruling from the original trial sentencing Kim to eight months in jail and two years of probation for destruction of evidence. He was indicted in August 2019 on charges of replacing two hard drives from a computer at the former justice minister’s house and removing a computer at Chung’s office to take it outside in his car.

In June last year, the first ruling accused Kim of making a proactive effort to destroy the evidence, not just passively receiving orders from Prof. Chung. Investigations found that Kim hid the hard drives and computers containing the evidence on her son and daughter’s college application and her family’s PE fund investment in a car under the name of his girlfriend and a gym locker.

“I think there are some explanations to be offered by those who have made ridiculous claims over the past two years, claiming it was “preservation” of evidence rather than destruction of evidence,” quipped Han Dong-hoon, the deputy director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute who served as the head of the Anti-Corruption Force Department during the investigation of Cho Kuk.


Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com