Prosecutors Eom Hee-jun and Kim Dong-hee have been put on trial for allegedly exerting pressure to dismiss charges related to the non-payment of severance pay by Coupang. According to Ahn Kwon-seop’s special investigation team, on the 27th, Prosecutor Eom was charged without detention for abuse of authority and violation of laws regarding parliamentary testimony and appraisals, while Prosecutor Kim was charged for abuse of authority.
Prosecutors Eom and Kim are accused of pressuring a lead prosecutor to dismiss charges involving Coupang’s unpaid severance pay case while they served as chief and deputy chief prosecutors, respectively, at the Bucheon branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office last year. During this time, they allegedly ignored Deputy Chief Prosecutor Moon Ji-seok’s opinion that further investigation or legal review was necessary, thereby infringing on Moon’s legitimate investigative rights, as determined by the special investigation team.
In May 2023, Coupang Fulfillment Services (CFS) changed its severance payment rules to state that daily workers who had worked for over a year would only be excluded from receiving severance pay if their weekly work hours included periods of less than 15 hours. This rule, often referred to as the “severance reset rule,” meant that if an employee worked less than 15 hours in a week even for one day, the period for severance calculation would reset from that day.
As a result, workers who were unable to receive severance pay reported Coupang to the Labor Office. The Bucheon branch of the Central Regional Employment and Labor Office forwarded the case to the prosecution with an opinion for indictment last January. However, the Bucheon branch treated the workers as daily employees, not entitled to severance pay, and dismissed the case.
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Moon later revealed during a National Assembly audit in October last year that Prosecutors Eom and Kim exerted pressure to dismiss the Coupang case. It was also alleged that a former prosecutor, representing Coupang, managed to relay requests to Prosecutor Kim, conveying some investigation information.
The special investigation team found evidence suggesting that Kim, the former deputy chief prosecutor, ghostwrote a report for the lead prosecutor intended for submission to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. To exclude Moon’s opinion advocating for further investigation, Kim directly drafted a report recommending no indictment on April 15 last year, which he then submitted to Eom and subsequently passed on to the lead prosecutor. Based on Kim’s report, the lead prosecutor drafted an initial report on April 18, which was presented to Moon and was eventually submitted to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office after passing through the reporting line.
The special investigation team concluded that Moon and the lead prosecutor’s investigation rights had been obstructed, resulting in a dismissal of the case without proper investigation and reporting. Eom is also accused of providing false testimony during a National Assembly audit, claiming he did not provide non-indictment guidelines and that Moon had attended and agreed with non-indictment related meetings.
However, the special investigation team deemed that further investigation is needed regarding the allegation that Coupang used a former prosecutor to lobby for the case and excluded this from the list of charges.