Police probe a case of paying money for beating

Police are investigating the 41-year-old family member of a conglomerate owner for beating a tank lorry driver with a bat and handing the driver 20 million won ($17,354) as a “beating price.”

A 52 year-old driver, Yu Hong-jun, said that Chey Chul-won, former CEO of the logistics company M&M and a cousin of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, beat him with an aluminum bat around 10 times at Chey’s office in Yongsan District on Oct. 18 and forced him to sign a contract for handing over a tank lorry for 50 million won.

The forward company, at which Yu was employed, was merged last year with M&M. As a condition in the buyout, M&M stipulated that tank lorry drivers not join the labor union.

Yu, then a director of lorry labor unions based in Ulsan, refused the deal, saying it was an unjustified crackdown on laborers.

The bruised driver has kept protesting the deal by demonstrating in front of both the mother company SK Group and the residence of the group’s chairman.

The conglomerate urged M&M to swiftly settle the dispute. M&M and Yu agreed to sell the driver’s tank lorry.

Yu visited Chey’s office last month to dispose of his tank lorry. Then, Chey struck Yu with a baseball bat and his fists in front of M&M employees, saying “a million won for one blow”.

For the last three beatings, Chey said it was worth 3 million won.

Afterward, Yu was left with 20 million won. Yu was also forced to sign a contract to hand over his tank lorry for 50 million won.

Kim Chil-jun, a lawyer of Yu said, “We will file a suit against Chey on charges of assault and battery. Seeing how things develop, we will also file a civil suit followed by a criminal suit.”

An employee of M&M said, “Chey is currently on a business trip, and is to come back around next week.”

By Yoo Sun-young, Yonhap [enational@joongang.co.kr]