Violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act | Pharmacy Manager Who Hired a Pharmacist with a Forged License Found Not Guilty

A, who was brought to trial on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, was a pharmacy manager operating a pharmacy in Jeju, and was charged with having employed B, who had forged a pharmacist's license.

B needed money because loan debts had accumulated following failed investments, and, drawing on prior experience working at a pharmacy, decided to pose as a pharmacist.

B then found A's pharmacy, which was recruiting a pharmacist on a job-search website, and attended an interview.

At an internet cafe, B searched for and printed a pharmacist's license form bearing the official seal of the Minister of Health and Welfare, attached a personal photograph, added a license number, a name, and a date of birth, and then created a forged pharmacist's license using a multifunction printer.

During the pharmacy interview with A, B submitted this forged pharmacist's license and also falsely claimed to have graduated from a particular pharmacy school and to have three years of experience working at a pharmacy.

Deceived by this, A employed B, and over approximately three years B sold pharmaceuticals worth approximately 1.476 billion won at A's pharmacy.

As a result of this case, B was sentenced to two years' imprisonment on charges of forgery of an official document, uttering a forged official document, fraud, and violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, and A was also sentenced to a fine of 5 million won with a one-year suspended sentence (a suspended sentence under Korean law, broadly comparable to a suspended sentence or probation in common-law systems, under which the conviction loses its effect once the suspension period passes without incident) on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.

In response, A appealed, arguing that A “had no knowledge whatsoever that the pharmacist's license presented by B was forged, and was, on the contrary, merely a victim deceived by B.”

A, who had been sentenced at the first instance to a suspended fine on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, was found not guilty on appeal.

The appellate court held that, “insofar as A misperceived B to be a pharmacist and employed B on that basis, A cannot be regarded as having a duty to manage and supervise B at the same level as an ordinary employee,” and found that “the first-instance judgment, which applied the charge of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act on the ground of a breach of the duty to manage and supervise, was not lawful.”

In addition, the fact that B, at A's pharmacy, did not compound pharmaceuticals but handled only the sale of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and worked independently also served as a basis for the not-guilty judgment.

The court held that “A is a victim who was defrauded by B,” and pronounced that it “reverses the first-instance guilty judgment and finds the defendant not guilty.”

We analyzed the district court's judgment, which at the first instance imposed a suspended fine on the ground that the defendant, on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, had employed a person holding a forged license, but on appeal returned a verdict of not guilty.

After this case, awareness of the need to verify pharmacist licenses grew among pharmacy managers. The authenticity of matters relating to a pharmacist's license can be checked through the Ministry of Health and Welfare license services website.

If it is revealed that an unqualified person was employed to compound or sell pharmaceuticals, the pharmacy will be subject to a business suspension disposition under Article 76 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, and the pharmacy establisher will also be subject to disposition.

If you have been wrongly charged with violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, you may wish to retain a 🔗medical attorney to proceed with the case.

Daeryun Law Firm LLP, with substantial medical knowledge and experience, and its 🔗Medical Litigation Group, will actively assist clients.