Final Guilty Verdict for Furniture Companies and Executives in 2 Trillion Won Bid-Rigging... Former Hanssem Chairman Choi Yangha Acquitted

Supreme Court Finalizes Suspended Sentences for Current and Former Executives of Hanssem and Others
"Insufficient Evidence of Involvement by Former Chairman Choi Yangha"

For nine years, major domestic furniture companies and their executives and employees, who engaged in bid-rigging worth 2.3 trillion won for "built-in furniture" at new apartment construction sites across the country, have received a final guilty verdict. However, Choi Yang-ha, former chairman of Hanssem, who was accused of ordering or condoning the collusion, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on April 1, the Supreme Court's Second Division (Chief Justice Oh Kyung-mi) on March 26 upheld the previous verdict, acquitting former Chairman Choi Yang-ha, who was indicted on charges of violating the Framework Act on the Construction Industry, and confirming the guilty verdicts for 11 current and former executives and employees of furniture companies and 8 corporations.

Eight companies—Hanssem, Hanssem Nexus, Enex, Nexis, Wooami, Sun&L Interior, Rebus, and Neps—were accused of prearranging the successful bidders and prices in bids for furniture construction at 783 new apartment sites ordered by 24 construction companies nationwide between January 2014 and December 2022.

The total bid amount reached a staggering 2.3261 trillion won. Due to this collusion, built-in furniture at major apartment complexes such as Lotte World Tower Signiel, Gaepo Xi Residence, and Shinbanpo Rael was found to have been installed at prices approximately 5% higher than the market rate.

Whether former CEO Choi was involved was a key issue, but both the first and second trial courts found that "former Chairman Choi was merely in a position to give final approval and there is insufficient evidence to acknowledge that he was directly informed of or aware of the collusion," thus acquitting him. The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion.

In contrast, for 11 working-level executives and employees, sentences of 10 months to 1 year in prison, suspended for 2 years, were finalized. For the corporations indicted under the dual liability principle, the Supreme Court's ruling finalized fines of 200 million won each for Hanssem and Enex; 150 million won each for Hanssem Nexus, Nexis, and Wooami; and 100 million won each for Sun&L Interior and Rebus. Neps was already finalized in the first trial, having received a fine of 150 million won and not appealing.

The court held that regarding how to punish the 783 acts of collusion, "since the victims (construction companies) differ in each case, they cannot be grouped as a single crime, and the offenses must be divided and punished by each construction company," upholding the legal reasoning of the lower court as valid.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.