Photo by: Techinasia

Former KeSPA chairman Jeon Byeong-heon has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by the South Korean court. Jeon, who took the position of KeSPA chairman in 2013, was indicted on bribery, embezzlement and corruption charges. In 2017 when Jeon was initially brought to court for questioning, reports said that he had received as much as $270,000 in bribery from Lotte Group conglomerate and also used his position of power to “manipulate and avoid industry laws and appoint family members or friends on higher-up position.”

According to the prosecution, Jeon also used his political power while working in the presidential administration to lobby and secure additional funding for KeSPA. This was done by re-routing state budget funds — as much as 2 billion KRW, or $1.77 million — with Jeon appropriating part of the money for himself.

Jeon will also have to pay 350 million KRW, or approximately $300,000, in fines in addition to his five-year sentence in prison. An accomplice of Jeon on the government level will also serve a five-year sentence and pay a 500 million KRW, or $444,000 fine.

First reports of Jeon’s court proceeding appeared in November 2017. Triggered by a public appeal from Game Rating and Administration Committee director Yeo Myung-sook, the authorities uncovered that the former KeSPA chairman was in the “root” of a corruption practice. The latter spanned across several gaming giants in South Korea: Nexon (developers of Maple story), Netmarble, and NCSoft (developers of the Lineage and Guild Wars series). According to Yeo, these entities were “in effect monopolizing from distribution to the legalities behind their products” and that corruption was on government level.

In response, the Korean authorities executed a raid on the KeSPA headquarters. It confirmed KeSPA’s involvement in the bribery coming from the aforementioned Lotte Group conglomerate and led to Jeon’s arrest.

This isn’t the first illegal practice Lotte Group is found guilty of. In 2016, prosecutors investigated “a possible slush fund as well as breach of trust involving transactions among the group’s companies”. The event led to Lotte’s chairman Lee In-won to be found dead two months later in suspected suicide — only a short time before he was to be questioned by the authorities.

H/T: Chosun, Cybersport.ru