By Franklin Fisher at the Stars & Stripes has the latest on the SSRT corruption case:
A 2005 photo of South Korean businessman Jeong Gi-hwan, now 44, who is being detained by federal authorities in Dallas, Texas, for his alleged role in a bribery conspiracy involving a contract his telecommunications firm, SSRT, formerly held with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in South Korea.
South Korean businessman Jeong Gi-hwan pleaded guilty Thursday to bribing AAFES officials so his company could win and hold a lucrative contact to sell Internet and phone service to U.S. troops in South Korea, the Justice Department said Friday.
Samsung Rental Co. Ltd., also known as SSRT, was later accused by servicemembers of price gouging and chronically poor service.
In an agreement with federal prosecutors, Jeong pleaded guilty in Dallas federal court to an indictment charging him with two counts of bribery, one count of conspiracy and two counts of honest services wire fraud.
U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade scheduled sentencing for Sept. 16, according to court documents.
The conspiracy ran from 2001 to 2006 and centered on a $206 million Army and Air Force Exchange Service contract to provide Internet and phone services on U.S. installations in South Korea.
The bribes included money spent on prostitutes, dining, drinking, travel and stock options, according to court papers.
From October 2001 to August 2005, Jeong paid about $80,000 in cash, entertainment, stock and other things of value to Clifton W. Choy, then AAFES service program manager for the Pacific region. [Stars & Stripes]
Read the rest on your own, but the SSRT corruption case is one I have long been following here on the ROK Drop. I will be very interested to see what Jeong as well as Lee Holloway the former general manager of AAFES on Osan AB get sentenced for their involvement in this bribery scandal. The person I would like to sentenced longer is Holloway. Jeong was just doing accepted practice in Korea, bribing people, however Holloway had the responsibility to award a contract that was in the best interest of USFK servicemembers and he chose to screw over USFK servicemembers instead. What an absolute disgrace.
What is even more incredible about this story is that even after Jeong’s arrest AAFES was either so corrupt or incompetent that they initially hired another company with ties to Jeong to provide Internet service for USFK servicemembers before an outcry made them change the contract.
1:53 am on June 14th, 2009 1
4:03 pm on June 14th, 2009 2
People who work for the U.S. Military in support of the troops have a duty to protect the American tax payer and the soldiers who defend them from the scumbags who wish to rape them for finanacial gain. Jeong is a criminal but Holloway is a traitor and that is the difference between the two. Traitors are to be hung from the neck until dead because a traitor can't be rehabilitated.
4:23 pm on January 8th, 2010 3
"Former AAFES official H. Lee Holloway was sentenced Thursday in a Georgia federal court to three years in prison…"
So when do all the airmen that got ripped off with poor, overpriced internet service get a refund check from AAFES who set up the fraud or Osan leadership (notoriously-corrupt general, Maury Forsyth) which never seemed to notice?
6:19 pm on January 8th, 2010 4
AAFES loves sticking it to soldiers.