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Kia union exec who took kickbacks on bogus t-shirt contract gets two years behind bars

Published: 23 Oct. 2025, 15:05 Updated: 23 Oct. 2025, 18:51

The Supreme Court building in Seocho District, southern Seoul, is seen on Sept. 25. [YONHAP]

A former Kia union executive who took kickbacks by rigging a T-shirt contract meant for union members will spend the next two years behind bars.

The Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling on Thursday that sentenced the former head of the union’s general affairs office, surnamed Choi, to two years in prison and to forfeit 143.82 million won ($100,000).

Choi was convicted of breach of trust, bribery, obstruction of bidding, violation of the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment and violation of the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions.

“There was no legal misjudgment in the lower court’s decision,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

Choi was indicted in August 2022 for accepting a 143.82 million won bribe from a vendor in exchange for ensuring it won a union contract to supply 28,200 T-shirts. He reportedly told the vendor’s sales representative, “Because this must be done through a public bidding process, we’ll need a dummy bidder,” and instructed the representative to find a decoy company.

The sales rep created a shell company through a subcontractor to serve as the decoy. Despite knowing that the production cost per shirt was just 12,000 won, the vendor submitted a bid of 14,000 won per shirt, while the dummy company bid 18,000 won. The vendor, offering the lower of the two, won the contract.

Choi later arranged for a bank account to receive the kickback through the vendor’s labor-management cooperation team and collected the rebate from the vendor.

The scheme came to light in January 2023 when some union members filed a complaint via the e-People government petition portal, questioning the quality of the shirts.

In January this year, the district court sentenced Choi to two years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of 143.82 million won, citing the “grave nature of the crime that undermined the fairness of union-related transactions which caused significant financial damage to the union.” The total loss to the union was estimated at 56.4 million won, or 2,000 won per shirt.

In June, the appeals court upheld the ruling, noting Choi “abused his position as general affairs head to manipulate the bidding process and receive kickbacks, causing economic harm to the union.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM JUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]