Prosecutors yesterday raided the offices of six major construction companies suspected of being involved in a bid rigging scam during the construction of an extension for the No.7 Subway Line.
As for those companies involved, let’s just say I know that for one company, Monday morning was hectic to say the least, for the employees who were in the gunsights. The targeted departments of a certain company went into the ahem smoke and mirrors mode. This happened after someone supposedly received a tip yesterday morning that the prosecutors were coming. (The prosecutors arrived after lunch.)
Anyways, what is a bit confusing about this case, why are the prosecutors investigating this case two months after the Fair Trade Commission fined these companies a total of US$20 million for the same bid rigging charge?
One guess is that the prosecutors are trying to show that they don’t single out foreign companies. But I think the main reason might be here;
The prosecution will question company officials soon. Prosecutors do not rule out the possibility that high-ranking officials of the city government were involved in bid rigging. Lee Myung-bak, presidential nominee of the main opposition Grand National Party, was Seoul mayor at the time of bidding.
Yup, it’s election year. Anything that will tarnish the GNP candidate is fair game.
28 Comments
Pardon my ignorance, but are you sure you should be blogging this?
Why not blog it? It will be in the news anyway
#1.
I thought about that too. But the events above happened in all six of the companies involved. And my guess is that the prosecutors know that there is funny business going on but are looking the other way. Otherwise the investigations would have been more intense.
I think what Andy means, is Are you brave or foolhardy? If the answer is brave, rock on. If you want to report it, I want to read it. (Might want to make sure you’re not using that moniker at work, though, of course.)
Once again, the prosecution cannot win. I have written in the past about the reforms that the prosecution needs. It’s all matter of record. So I will not defend them too strenuously.
But I think you cannot on the one hand bash them for prosecuting only foreigners only to bash them for prosecuting Koreans, suggesting they are doing so just for the sake of just wanting to appear to be placating the foreigners. Isn’t that a bit rich? Why can’t you just accept that the prosecution has been on a bloody hunt (witch or otherwise) for several years now and that their targets are diverse. Do you really think that Hyundai was dragged through the mud because the prosecutors wanted to show they’re being fair? And don’t confuse the appeals court ruling that let the two CEOs off the hook with something that the prosecution is happy with.
#8.
Did you read the last lines of my post?
If you had, you’ll see that although I suggested that the prosecutors were trying to look “fair” the main reason may be that they were after LMB.
I did read it. But twice you used some spurious guess work.
First time: “I guess they’re just trying to appear fair”
Second time: “I guess the prosecutors know something is going on and looking the other way.”
If you’re going to post about something and cast aspersions, why guess? Is that fair to them?
If your main point is that the prosecution is going after LMB, then fine. I think we’re all in agreement on what the prosecution is doing there. The whole land scandal thing during the GNP primary was, well, scandalous.
#10.
It seems like you are missing out on things, most of the posts here involve some form of guesswork and opinions based on actual events. Now if the posters here give you just the news as it is, then there is no point in reading the posts, no?
I think I understand; so the prosecutors show up and muddy the water, so to speak, so that no one else can come along and dig out the real dirt. Their visit was actually a bit of official misdirection since they are not really trying to nail the companies, no?
This makes sense since, their visit force people to make certain they have hidden or destroyed everything, thus it is a vetting run.
Two points:
1. Anti-competitive activity often attracts both civil and criminal liabilities. KFTC only has the power to impose civil penalties. Criminal jurisdiction is vested in the Prosecutors Office. This case moreover involves not just garden-variety collusion against the interests of other private competitors and customers, but acting against the public interest and the public purse and may involve bribery/extortion, etc. Hence, this may be “just” plain vanilla law enforcement. Yeah, I know, I doubt that too; but even if there’s a political motive, it doesn’t really imply that there aren’t also real crimes in issue.
2. There’s nothing wrong with just reporting this, but you’ve gone beyond that and created a public evidentiary record of additional criminal behaviour by the companies and its employees: the deliberate destruction of evidence. That’s obstruction of justice, and by outing them you’ve obviously put yourself at risk. Duck!
I’m not missing anything at all. My point is to ask you to not do the precise thing you’ve pointed out that I’m missing. If you are posting, and you make some comment like “I guess they’re trying to placate foreigners,” you are at the least coming off as an authority to people who read the blog (I don’t believe that is your intention but some people might misconstrue). But the fact is that you don’t know, and you don’t have sources, and you don’t have anyone editing your work. And that’s why we have a comment section.
As I said, I think you’re clearly right about the LMB issue. And I have the same opinion on said prosecutorial behavior. All I am saying is, in the course of making your main point, why do you have to throw in a casual “I guess they’re trying to placate the foreigners” comment. It’s gratuitous and, given that you don’t really “know,” why say it?
#13.
I say it because the thought came up. Is there anything wrong with that?
When you’re casting aspersions, there is.
If you company is guilty — and it seems like it is — then it is guilty and it doesn’t really matter if investigators are out to make the GNP look bad. Bid rigging is serious stuff IMO, even if it is usually glossed over in Korea.
Do you think foreign companies got a friendly tip that investigators were coming?
mjw, you are obviously trying to bait me so I’m going to make this clear to you one last time.
I’m not trying to cast an aspersion. It’s a guess and my personal opinion. People can agree with me or they can disagree. It’s up to them. If you want to disagree, fine. But don’t accuse me of something that I was not trying to do. If you want to, bring some hard proof.
BTW, didn’t you comment that I should have some proof, before I make a remark? Then why are you accusing me of something without proof?
#16.
Probably not. Considering that when the prosecutors raided the Lone Star offices they came out with truckloads of documents, and judging from the TV news last night the document cache from the six didn’t look like much.
On the other hand, if the said foreign company hired a lawyer who used to work as a prosecutor, well they might get a tip. But I never worked in a foreign company so I can’t say for sure.
Don’t worry about mjw, SK, that’s just going in circles. Pay more attention to Sperwer - caaareful attention.
OK, what did I miss that might get me sued?
Robert, you weren’t watching the posts? Someone was going around editing the comments, I assumed that it was you.
Anyways, nothing that will get you sued, just got myself carried away. Learned my lesson and this won’t happen again.
Some shadowy editor is getting pretty active back there. Did they notice that ‘the moniker’ is back?
Yes, it’s back. Strange isn’t it? I guess it’s a sign that I should keep my moniker.
Wanna keep your tag or your job?
Well, Linkd. I still have my job, and besides as per your advice I have watered down my post. Now is there any other issues you want to discuss?
BTW checked your site, interesting.
Ah, I didn’t see the change to the original post. Prudent.
Thanks. It gets more out of date every day, of course. I keep telling myself to get around to updating it…
How are prosecutors appointed in Korea? Do they directly owe their jobs to the government of the day, and are they replaced with each change of government? How vulnerable to presidential or assembly pressure are they? The post alludes that this may be an attempt to descredit Lee MyungPark in the upcoming election - how would the Roh admin or NewUri party get them to do that, if so? What threats or promises would be made?
So much I don’t know!
“discredit”
mins… Relax. I wasn’t trying to bait you. I’m really don’t understand why everyone naturally expects the worst of people, especially over the internet. Please read my comments to you again and look for the common positive thread.
My students told me that quite a few Korean construction companies have been caught mixing the trash from the construction site (bits and pieces of nails and wire, dust, dirt, pieces of styrofoam, broken glass, you name it) into the concrete that they used during the construction of apartment buildings. I know people who renovated their apartments to find that big holes in the walls had been filed with styrofoam and covered with a thin layer of cement.