Park Soo-hong's brother and his wife admitted embezzlement of 2 billion won, postponed for the third time on appeal
Aug 20, 2025
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The Seoul High Court's 7th Criminal Department postponed the appeal hearing of Park Soo-hong's brother Park and his brother Lee, which was scheduled for the 20th, to the 17th of next month for violating the Specific Economic Crimes Weighted Punishment Act. This is the third postponement since the resumption of the appeals court.
Earlier in the first trial, the court found Park guilty of embezzling 2 billion won in company funds, but sentenced him to two years in prison for stealing 1.6 billion won in personal funds from Park Soo-hong. Brother-in-law Lee was acquitted, saying he lacked evidence of an accomplice. Prosecutors demanded seven years and three years in prison, respectively, but both sides appealed against the ruling.
In the process, Park and his wife were found to have partially admitted that they had siphoned off the company's funds, including private use of corporate credit cards, embezzling salaries after registering false employees, and purchasing lawyers' expenses and personal items. It was confirmed that the amount of embezzlement alone exceeded 2 billion won from the funds of Lael and Media Boom.
Park Soo-hong, who served as a witness at the appeals court last year, expressed his unfairness, saying, `I felt sorry to see my assets used at will just because it was a family company.' He said "While my brother and wife acquired the property worth 4.3 billion won, I didn't have any real estate under my name."," he said, expressing his anger.
The court asked the two sides to clarify the process of property formation and the purpose of managing Park Soo-hong's personal account. In addition, pointing out that the difference between the two sides in the growth of real estate and financial assets is large, the reason for the wealth gap should be explained, as most of the revenue sources were Park Soo-hong's entertainment activities," he stressed.
mj.cho@sportschosun.com
