A former top executive of IBM Korea was Tuesday sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in South Korea's biggest corruption scandal involving a foreign-owned firm, officials said.
Jang Gyeong-Ho, IBM Korea's former executive in charge of bidding for government procurement projects, was convicted of paying bribes to win contracts, said officials at the Seoul District Court.
Two other top sales executives of the South Korean subsidiary of US multinational IBM were also jailed for one year for corruption, the officials said.
Jang, 48, who was found to have bribed government officials to obtain contracts to supply computers and servers to government offices, was also fined 98 million won (84,600 dollars), they said.
The three, including Jang, were all dismissed from their posts when the scandal broke last year and IBM Korea issued an official apology.
"The officials from IBM Korea, which monopolises the country's server market, were sternly dealt with because they disrupted market order," senior court judge Pyung-Un Kim told AFP after issuing the ruling.
The judge also sentenced two procurement officials, one at the National Tax Service and the other at a local mutual banking association, to two-and-a-half years in prison each for taking bribes from IBM.
They were also fined 80 million won each.
Prosecutors said the case was the biggest corruption probe involving a foreign company or subsidiary doing business in South Korea.
They said IBM Korea and its sister firms - LG IBM and Winsol - bribed government officials or colluded with other firms to secure 66 billion won in contracts from government departments.
LG IBM, a PC company, is a joint venture between IBM Korea and LG Electronics. Winsol sells IBM computer servers.
In one case in 2001, IBM Korea colluded with other firms to help Winsol win a 2.6 billion won contract for the supply of computers and servers to Seoul's ministry of information and communication, prosecutors said.
The scandal surfaced when prosecutors raided the offices of IBM Korea in November. Last month, they indicted 48 people, including Jang and other top IBM officials.
Jang was accused of pocketing 340 million won for helping Winsol win contracts through rigged bidding between 2001 and 2003, prosecutors said.
He and other officials were also accused of creating a slush fund to provide kickbacks to government officials and bidding companies.
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