[Newsmaker] IT entrepreneur under probe for attempted contract killing

An IT entrepreneur recently indicted for abusing his employees is now under investigation for allegedly attempting contract killing.

In September 2015, Yang Jin-ho, chief of several local online storage service firms and robot developer K-Technology, allegedly asked a Buddhist monk to murder the brother-in-law of his ex-wife who at the time was going through a divorce suit against him.

Police found that Yang paid 30 million won to the monk, who told police that Yang asked him to stab the husband of his ex-wife’s elder sister “in the aorta of his thigh and the side of the abdomen.” 

Police also found that Yang handed over personal information of his target such as the address and photos to the monk. The brother-in-law helped Yang’s ex-wife find a lawyer in the divorce suit.

The monk allegedly took 10 million won for himself, and gave 20 million won to his acquaintance to go ahead with the crime. The acquaintance is suspected of asking another person to do the stabbing, which did not materialize.

The monk returned the money to Yang. The brother-in-law of Yang’s ex-wife is currently unable to make a statement to police due to poor health.

Police recently booked without detention Yang, the monk and the two others involved as suspects for conspiring murder, and questioned them.

Yang claimed that he never asked the monk “to kill” his brother-in-law, and the monk’s acquaintance said he understood it as a request for an assault, but did not go ahead with it once he learned that it had come from Yang.

The other suspect claimed that he only met the monk’s acquaintance a few times for business, and was never asked to kill anyone.

In October, videos of Yang slapping his employee and ordering employees to kill a chicken using a crossbow and a sword to make chicken soup went viral.

Prosecutors detained and indicted Yang in December, and are working with the police on suspicions that he led the distribution of illegal pornography as the center of a so-called “webhard cartel.”

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)