FCPA Scorecard Blog
South Korea’s Former President, Park Geun-hye, Formally Indicted on Corruption Charges
On April 17, former South Korean president Park Geun-hye was formally indicted on 18 charges of corruption including bribery, extortion, abuse of power, and leaking state secrets. Ms. Park was impeached in December after months of public protests. Last month, she was removed from office and arrested.
The corruption scandal has also implicated Ms. Park’s longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil, 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 Ms. Choi controlled. Ms. Park and Ms. Choi are also accused of collecting or demanding $52 million in bribes from businesses, including $38 million from Korean conglomerate Samsung, $6.2 million from the retail conglomerate Lotte, and $7.8 million from the telecommunications and semiconductor conglomerate SK. Shin Dong-bin, the chairman of Lotte, was indicted on bribery charges on Monday.