[Editorial] Snowballing scandal

As anticipated, the case involving cosmetics firm Nature Republic’s CEO Jung Woon-ho is growing into a major corruption scandal that threatens to implicate incumbent prosecutors and judges.

At the center of the case are allegations that Jung attempted -- through the help of lawyers and middle men -- to buy the influence of prosecutors and judges to get a lighter punishment for his illegal gambling charges.

The scandal has already put a senior-judge-turned-lawyer into custody and forced a senior judge to tender his resignation.

It is apparent that Jung, who now serves an eight-month term, took a two-track approach -- with one track toward prosecutors and the other toward judges.

Prominent lawyer Hong Man-pyo, who held several key prosecution posts before his retirement in 2011, is suspected of laying the first path for Jung by using his connections with his former colleagues in the prosecution.

Hong offered legal counsel to Jung since the businessman underwent investigation for illegal overseas gambling in 2013. What is suspicious is that the prosecution did not indict him in previous investigations. Prosecutors who opened a new investigation indicted him only last October.

There were more queer turns of events: Prosecutors dropped embezzlement charges when they indicted Jung last October even though he was suspected of diverting company money for gambling. Jung was not charged with a violation of the foreign exchange law either.

Prosecutors were also lenient in court, as they lowered their demands for punishment of Jung to 2 1/2 years in prison in the appeals court, compared with three years in the lower court. Eventually, Jung’s term, which was one year in the lower court’s decision, went down to eight months in the appellate court. All this can hardly be regarded as pure coincidence.

Lawyer Choi You-jeong, a former senior judge now in custody, is suspected of helping Jung influence judges. Working with a middle man between her and her client, Choi allegedly demanded 5 billion won ($4.29 million) for getting bail or a suspended term for Jung by using her connections with judges. She is also suspected of having earned 5 billion won in another case in which the defendant got his prison term suspended in the appeals court.

The suspicions surrounding Hong and Choi illustrate the deep, time-old practice in which wealthy defendants rely on corrupt ties between lawyers and their former colleagues in the prosecution and the court.

Investigators should find out whether Hong and Choi approached prosecutors and judges and whether it affected the investigations and court rulings concerning their wealthy clients. Given past experience, we will soon get the names of prosecutors and judges implicated in the case.