South Korea: Antitrust lawyer under fire as corruption outcry grows

A former senior official at South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, and the FTC itself, is under fire by critics for its role in a corruption scandal that some experts say represents a broader problem in the nation of collusive relations between the government and the private sector.

According to reports, the FTC accepted the resignation of a former senior staffer who was found to have received money and played free gold with business officials while at the regulator. The FTC accepted his resignation in November, allowing the official to accept a new position at the antitrust section of law firm Cheong Wa Dae.

Neither Cheong Wa Dae nor the FTC took disciplinary action against the official.

The case, some experts say, is troubling for the nation whose issues of government corruption were revealed in the wake of the Sewol ferry disaster. Now, the nation’s Civil Service Ethics Commission is under fire for allowing the Cheong Wa Dae antitrust lawyer to continue working unpunished, and for the ethics group’s lack of consistency when dealing with such matters.

Full content: Korea Herald

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