Former executive who refused to return fishing village documents... Court: Not guilty of embezzlement

In the course of an internal dispute within the fishing community, bankbooks and accounting ledgers were requested to be returned.
Court “Difficult to recognize intent to acquire illegally… Simply refusing to return is not enough”

Former fishing village executives who were indicted for failing to return operational documents were found not guilty.

The Jinju branch of the Changwon District Court found two people, including Mr. A, a former fishing village chief, not guilty on charges of business embezzlement in January.

They were expelled from the extraordinary general meeting of the fishing village community in June 2022. Afterwards, they were asked to return related documents such as bankbooks, accounting ledgers, and meeting minutes necessary for the operation of the fishing village community, but they did not respond. The reason was that a legal dispute contesting the validity of the resolution of the extraordinary general meeting was ongoing at the time. Accordingly, the fishing community filed a complaint against them, claiming that operations were disrupted due to failure to return documents.

The court found him not guilty. The court said, “It is difficult to say that the defendants at the time had an intention to illegally acquire documents from the fishing village and dispose of them as their own.” At the same time, the court added, “Considering that the defendants won the invalidity confirmation lawsuit they filed against the fishing village community while contesting the validity of the expulsion resolution, we judged that it would be difficult to immediately evaluate the act of keeping related documents in a situation where the legitimacy of the expulsion resolution was denied as the same as embezzlement.”

Attorney Im Seok-pil of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented the two, explained, “For a crime of embezzlement to be committed, a simple refusal to return is not enough, and the intention to illegally acquire property to dispose of another person’s property as one’s own must be recognized.” He added, “If the expulsion decision itself was judged invalid in the appeal trial, as in this case, the court made it clear that the act of keeping related documents cannot be considered embezzlement based on the intention to illegally acquire.”

Reporter Kim Hee-guk kukie@kookje.co.kr

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Former executive who refused to return fishing village documents... Court: Not guilty of embezzlement (Shortcut)