By Is anyone surprised by this?:
About 13 tons of American beef were falsely sold as Australian products five years ago in defiance of a disposal order issued after a case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was reported in the United States.
The prosecution indicted two men, identified as Seon and Kim, Monday, for having hoarded the American beef from a discount store where Seon worked and having supplied it to big discount store chains and department stores.
In December 2003, when cows suspected of having the disease were found in the U.S. and Seon’s company was ordered to dispose of all American beef, he allegedly destroyed seven tons and falsely reported to the company that he had destroyed the entire 29 tons in the store.
Among the remaining 22 tons, Seon delivered 12.7 tons to discount stores and department stores between August and December 2004. The two fabricated expiration dates of the products and labeled them as “Australian beef,” raking in 280 million won in revenue. The products sold out. [Korea Times]
I wonder if the prosecutors are looking at how much US beef was sold in Korea as Australian beef that was blackmarketed from the various USFK commissaries? I’m willing to bet that total would dwarf the amount these guys were selling.
8:58 am on April 14th, 2009 1
Quite to the contrary! During the big Mad Cow Disease scare, blackmarketed beef from the commissary was more popular than ever before and reached an all-time high in value on the blackmarket. The reason for this was that the prevailing wisdom among the Koreans was that regular imported American beef and beef sold at the commissary were not the same thing. And that while the US gov't couldn't care less if the beef imported to Korea for Korean consumption was tainted – it would never send tainted meat to its soldiers. So if you got beef meant to be sold to soldiers – you had no worries.
Of course, we can thank our friendly Korean NGOs and dissident groups for spreading this wisdom.