InfoBytes Blog
South Korea’s Former President Formally Indicted on Corruption Charges
On April 17, the former South Korean president was formally indicted on 18 charges of corruption including bribery, extortion, abuse of power, and leaking state secrets. The former president was impeached in December after months of public protests. Last month, she was removed from office and arrested.
The corruption scandal has also implicated the former president’s longtime confidante, who is currently on trial on corruption charges. The pair is accused of coercing Korean businesses into donating $68 million to two non-profit foundations that the former president’s confidante controlled. They are both also accused of collecting or demanding $52 million in bribes from businesses, including $38 million from a Korean multinational conglomerate, $6.2 million from a retail conglomerate, and $7.8 million from a telecommunications and semiconductor conglomerate. The chairman of the retail conglomerate, was indicted on bribery charges on Monday.