Former head of South Korean earthquake research center convicted of laundering $1 million in bribes, officials say
The former head of South Korea’s earthquake research center was convicted this week of laundering more than $1 million in bribes from two seismological companies, including one based in Pasadena, that paid him in exchange for insider information.
After a four-day trial, a federal jury convicted Heon-Cheol Chi, a 59-year-old resident of South Korea, of one count of transacting in criminally derived property, according to the U. S. attorney’s office. The jury failed to reach a verdict on five other counts of money laundering.
Chi’s conviction hinged on the jury’s determination that the payments were illegal under South Korea’s bribery laws. Prosecutors said Chi abused his public position by accepting kickbacks, but his attorney argued that consulting agreements are common in South Korea and that the law was not properly explained to the jury.
“Money laundering is only a crime if you can prove the money came from an illegal source. The only illegal source they charged him with was violating Korean law, ” said defense attorney Joel Koury, adding that Chi was never charged with taking bribes in South Korea. “If the judge got Korean law wrong, then it’s not a crime.”
For years, Chi headed the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources’ Earthquake Research Center in South Korea, where he tested seismological equipment, offered technical certifications for equipment used in government-funded projects and developed an early-warning earthquake system.
