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Hana Financial Group CEO found guilty of interfering in hiring process

Published: 23 Nov. 2023, 18:47

KIM JU-YEON
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Hana Financial Group CEO Ham Young-joo leaves the Seoul Western District Court in Mapo District, western Seoul, after his appeal trial, where he was sentenced to six months in prison, two years of probation and a fine of 3 million won on charges of interfering with business and violating the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. [YONHAP]

Hana Financial Group CEO Ham Young-joo was found guilty in an appeal ruling on Thursday for influencing the hiring process of new recruits at Hana Bank so that a specific candidate would be accepted.

The Seoul Western District Court sentenced Ham to six months in prison, a suspended sentence of two years and a fine of 3 million won ($2,310) for interfering with business and violating the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, in an overturning of the lower court’s acquittal ruling in 2022.

The trial has been going on since 2018, when Ham was serving as CEO of Hana Bank at the time.

Ham was accused of influence-peddling in the hiring process of Hana Bank in 2015 and 2016 where he allegedly manipulated the scores of other applicants in order to recruit offspring of his acquaintance.

He additionally faced charges of ordering the bank’s human resources team to hire more males than females to make the gender proportion at the bank a one-to-four ratio, between 2013 and 2016.

Ham had served as Hana Bank CEO between 2015 and 2019, becoming the bank's first leader after Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank merged in 2015. He became the vice chairman of Hana Financial Group in 2016, and the chairman of Hana Financial Group in May 2022.

For former Hana Bank vice chairman Jang Ki-yong, who was indicted alongside Ham, the lower court’s sentence of six months in prison and a suspended sentence of two years was upheld in the appeal ruling.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]