[All] A scriptwriter extorted 2.6 billion won from Shinwha's Lee Min-woo?

Lee Min-woo, a member of the group Shinhwa.

A scriptwriter who was sentenced to 9 years in prison on appeal for defrauding Lee Min-woo, a member of the group Shinhwa, by promising to “help him get cleared of sexual harassment charges” and stealing about 2.6 billion won, will face a second trial. The reason is that some of the damages were calculated twice and must be recalculated.

According to the legal community on the 27th, the 2nd Division of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Kim Sang-hwan) overturned the original sentence of 9 years in prison and a fine of 2.63639 billion won for screenwriter A, who was indicted on charges of fraud under the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes Act, and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court.

Lee Min-woo was booked by the police on charges of sexually harassing two women in June 2019 and sent to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment. A, who had known Lee Min-woo for 20 years, said, “I have connections within the prosecution, so I will make sure you are cleared of charges.” In return, he received 1.6 billion won from Lee Min-woo. However, there was no prosecutor who was close to A, and he did not give the money to any prosecutor.

In December of the same year, the prosecution decided not to prosecute Lee Min-woo, and this fact was reported in the media. Then, Mr. A approached Lee Min-woo again and demanded more money, saying, “The prosecutors are trying to reverse the decision of not prosecute.” The prosecution determined that Mr. A extorted a total of 2.6 billion won from Lee Min-woo over 26 months.

The first and second trials mostly acknowledged Mr. A's charges, but the Supreme Court said that some of the damages were already incurred by Lee Min-woo and were simply transferred to another account, and ordered a re-evaluation of the exact amount of damage. It argued that there was a "misunderstanding of the legal doctrine regarding non-punishable acts."

Some of the money that Mr. A stole was transferred back to Mr. A or a third party through other accounts of Lee Min-woo, but the Supreme Court ruled that this money should not be counted as a separate crime damage. Just as a thief who destroys stolen property is only punished for theft and not for the subsequent act of property damage, transferring money that has already been stole should not be considered an additional crime.

The Supreme Court said, “The original trial court should have further examined whether the problematic transfer amount was a separate source of money, not the loan in this case, and whether the defendant’s part (transfer) act could be viewed as an increase in the infringement of the victim’s legal interests or a new infringement of legal interests.”

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