The Supreme Court has confirmed the guilty verdict against former lawmaker Yoon Mee-hyang, who was charged with embezzling donations for the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance. The 2nd division of the Supreme Court (presiding judge Kim Sang-hwan) confirmed the previous court’s decision today (14th), sentencing Yoon to 1 year and 6 months in prison, suspended for 3 years, on charges including violating the Donation and Fundraising Act.
The Supreme Court stated that there were no errors in the lower court’s judgment regarding the establishment of fraud, violation of the Subsidy Management Act, occupational embezzlement, and violations of the Donation and Fundraising Act.
Yoon was indicted in September 2020 on charges of using funds raised from 2011 to 2020 intended to aid comfort women victims for personal purposes, falsely claiming Seoul city subsidies, and raising donations through organizational and personal accounts without proper registration.
The first trial court found only part of the occupational embezzlement charges against Yoon guilty. While the prosecution alleged that Yoon used roughly 103.7 million won of the Justice and Remembrance Council’s donations for personal use, the court only found guilty of embezzling 17.18 million won and imposed a fine of 15 million won.
However, the second trial court increased the scope of the guilty verdicts significantly in September last year, raising the sentence to 1 year and 6 months in prison, suspended for 3 years. The amount of embezzled donations was determined to be 79.58 million won, and Yoon was also found guilty of raising 129.67 million won under the pretense of condolence money for Kim Bok-dong and using it for other purposes.
Yoon was also found guilty of illegally obtaining 65.2 million won in government subsidies by falsifying wage calculations to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Both the prosecution and Yoon appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court dismissed both appeals, finding no errors in the second trial’s judgment.