“The whole family has become shameful” Jung Kyung-sim’s last tears, arrested again

Cho Kook-shim’s wife, Dongyang University professor, who was handed over to trial due to irregularities in the entrance exam and allegations of private equity funds, was sentenced to imprisonment and imprisoned in court. After a year of workshops, it was concluded that Professor Jeong forged his daughter Jo Min’s various internships and a citation in the name of the president of Tong Yang University. In spite of the criticism of the passport, the shoulders of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, who pushed the investigation into the family of former Minister Cho, are also expected to lighten.

On the 23rd, the 25-2 of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Agreement (Judge Lim Jeong-yeop) sentenced Professor Jeong to 4 years in prison and a fine of 500 million won and imprisoned. This is the first judgment of the court, which came 475 days after the prosecutors’ prosecution charged Jeong for forgery of the Tong Yang University citation on September 6 last year. Professor Jeong, who was released in May due to the expiration of his arrest deadline, was again imprisoned in the southern Seoul detention center.

There were 15 charges that the prosecution applied to Professor Chung. It is largely divided into ▶ corruption of child entrance examination ▶ suspicion of private equity ▶ destruction of evidence. The judge found most of these charges guilty.

In particular, her daughter Cho Min’s internship at Dankook University and 1 author false experience, Gongju University intern and 3 author false experience, forged a citation from the president of Tong Yang University, false career as an assistant researcher at Tong Yang University, false career intern at Seoul National University Public Interest Human Rights Law Center, intern at Korea Institute of Science and Technology All the ‘7 false specs’ claimed by the prosecution, such as false career, were found guilty.

The judges judged that “Professor Jung played a leading role in submitting false self-introduction and supporting documents when her daughter entered Seoul National University and Pusan ​​National University, and interfered with the work of the evaluation committee who wanted to select talent through fair procedures.” . In addition, he added, “In order to make my daughter look better than other applicants, he received an internship confirmation from an acquaintance with false facts, and later committed a counterfeit crime that he received a citation for volunteering that he did not perform. He pointed out that the guilt is not very good in light of the way it was committed.”

The judge also said that former Minister Cho participated in the false preparation of the public interest human rights law center internship confirmation and the Aqua Palace Hotel internship confirmation.

As the court admits all charges of corruption in the entrance exam, it is expected that Cho Min’s admission will be canceled again. Korea University announced in November last year, “If a serious defect is found, we will cancel the admission of Mr. Cho.” In this case, admission to medical school, which requires graduation from university, is automatically cancelled. However, it is difficult to predict cancellation of admission at the discretion of the university. The Busan National University medical team’s position is that “the results of the first trial have only been obtained, so I will wait for the final judgment of the court.”

The judiciary followed the judgment made by Cho’s 5th-son nephew, Beom-dong, in June. At the time, the 24th Division of the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Agreement (Presiding Justice So Byung-Seok) decided that Professor Jeong was not an accomplice on the allegations that he made a false consulting contract after investing 1 billion won in Korink PE and embezzling 150 million won in the money. Professor Jeong’s judiciary was also acquitted, saying, “It is difficult to admit that it was proved without reasonable doubt that he actively participated in the state that he recognized that Mr. Cho’s actions were embezzlement.”

He was also acquitted of conspiring with Cho Beom-dong and falsely reporting the change of private equity to the Financial Services Commission. This is because Professor Jeong did not believe that there was no evidence that he had conspired with Cho Beom-dong or shared the act.

However, he admitted that Professor Jeong acquired important undisclosed information from Mr. Jo Beom-dong and bought WFM stocks, resulting in a crime profit of about 230 million won. In addition, he was also convicted of conspiring with his younger brother to hide his profits.

When Cho was inaugurated as Chief Civil Engineer and became obligated to register the property, the suspicion of a’nominated account’ that he had used an account in the name of his acquaintances to trade stocks was also considered true. Regarding this, the judge explained, “As the wife of a senior public official, despite the legal obligation to faithfully comply with property reports, he committed various illegal acts to increase his and his family’s property,” and said, “I cannot but assess the guilt heavily.” did.

Professor Jeong was convicted of instructing the staff of Korink PE to destroy the data related to his younger brother in preparation for an ongoing investigation. It was also recognized that he tried to hide the storage media of his home PC and the PC of the professor’s lab at Tong Yang University through the asset manager. However, the judiciary judged that Professor Jeong had concealed the PC together, judging it as an “accomplice” and determined that it could not be charged. Under the criminal law, the crime of destroying evidence is punishable only when the evidence is destroyed or concealed in a criminal case of someone other than the person himself.

Professor Jeong’s side has denied all charges, saying, “It was a target investigation for the fall of former Minister Cho.” In his final statement, Professor Jeong shed tears, saying, “After my spouse, who was a scholar, became a public official, I tried to live without becoming someone, but at some point the whole family fell into shame.”

It is pointed out that this strategy rather brought about his restraint. The judiciary judged that “Professor Chung is unlikely to escape,” but ordered a court arrest, saying, “It is highly likely to attempt to destroy evidence again, such as manipulating relevant evidence or urging people to make false statements.”

The judges also questioned Professor Chung’s attitude. It is that Professor Jeong has never acknowledged and reflected on his fault. The judges pointed out that “the attitude of continuing to argue that is irrational and persuasive while denying all facts of prosecution despite objective physical evidence and credible statements is difficult to accept even considering the aspect of the exercise of defense rights.”

After the sentence was completed, Professor Jeong said in a trembling voice, as if confused by Judge Lim Jeong-yeop’s question, “Do you have any opinion?” Judge Lim said, “I am supposed to write my own story,” and steadfastly stopped him, saying “No,” and Professor Jeong said in a small voice, “I have nothing to say”. He nodded when asked, “Would you like to inform Mr. Cho of the arrest?”

Professor Chung’s lawyer complained that “the efforts to reveal the truth in court while defending themselves against overwhelming public opinion attacks from the course of the investigation were referred to as an unfavorable reason for Professor Chung.” Said. Professor Chung’s side said it would appeal after reviewing the decision.

The prosecution, which was criticized by the passport for being “unreasonable prosecution,” is inspiring. The investigation team said, “We respect the judgment of the court,” and said, “We will do our best to the end so that a result that meets the sins and responsibilities can be achieved.”

The results of the trial on that day are likely to affect other trials in which the couple is currently indicted. In December of last year, the prosecution handed over former Minister Cho to trial for 11 crimes, including irregularities in the entrance examination of his children and bribery, and prosecuted Professor Chung as an accomplice. In addition to the suspicion of the daughter-related entrance exam, the son’s false writing of the George Washington University scholarship certificate was added. Professor Chung did not submit an application for consolidation of the case to the existing court, and the case that was additionally prosecuted is under way in the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Agreement Department 21 (President Judge Kim Mi-ri). Deputy Judge Kim first heard the charges of’Yoo Jae-soo’ of the former Minister Cho, who was not related to Professor Jeong. As hearings on the couple’s child entrance examination irregularities began on the 4th, the two are expected to stand side by side in one court in the future.

Since it is not a private meeting, it is not a problem to gather more than 5 people, but due to the reinforced’social distancing’, the number of people who can enter the courtroom on this day was limited. Earlier, the court assigned 20 seats for audition to ordinary citizens through a lottery for auditing rights, but only 7 people were allowed to enter the court. Two relay courts were operated to compensate for the fewer seats. In the relay court, we watch the trial through video. Some of the audience, who sighed whenever they were convicted, cried out in tears, saying, “What should I do?” when Professor Jeong’s court arrest was confirmed.

Reporter Lee Ga-young [email protected]