Acquitted on anti-graft charges in first trial

Court rules payments were private transactions, not prohibited gifts

'Not everything improper can be punished — morality must have its own domain'

Hyun Woo-jin, a top-ranked hagwon math instructor indicted on charges of illegally trading college entrance exam questions with active teachers, attends the first hearing in his trial on anti-graft charges at Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu in April. [Yonhap]
Hyun Woo-jin, a top-ranked hagwon math instructor indicted on charges of illegally trading college entrance exam questions with active teachers, attends the first hearing in his trial on anti-graft charges at Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu in April. [Yonhap]

Hyun Woo-jin, a top-ranked hagwon math instructor who faced charges of improperly trading college entrance exam questions with active teachers, was acquitted in a first-instance ruling Wednesday.

The 10th Criminal Division of Seoul Central District Court handed down the verdict against Hyun, who submitted a notice of absence and did not appear in court that day. The court also acquitted two active teachers and a textbook developer charged with providing exam questions to Hyun in exchange for money.

"The money exchanged by the defendants constitutes a private transaction and does not fall under gifts prohibited by the Anti-Graft Act," the court said. It added that the payments Hyun made to the teachers were commensurate with the value of the questions provided, and that because the amounts did not significantly exceed fair compensation, they were not subject to punishment.

The court found the payments were not excessive relative to the work performed and therefore did not meet the threshold for prosecution under the Anti-Graft Act. However, the court stressed that declining to punish the conduct did not mean it was ethically justified.

"Law is the minimum of morality," the court said, "and criminal punishment is a last resort for resolving problems." It added that not every instance of improper conduct can be punished, and that "there is a need to leave room for the domain of morality and ethics — if only to prevent behavior that treats avoiding criminal punishment as sufficient."

Hyun was accused of paying two active math teachers a total of 346 million won ($250,000) between March 2020 and May 2023 in exchange for exam questions. He also faced a separate charge of transferring 75 million won to an account held in the name of another teacher's spouse.

At the final hearing held last month, prosecutors asked the court to sentence Hyun to one year in prison.

Prosecutors argued that buying and selling exam questions over several years and receiving hundreds of millions of won in the process "fundamentally undermines public trust in education and cannot be justified in any way." They also said that when active teachers who write school exam questions sell those questions to hagwon, students enrolled there gain advance access to the material, deepening educational inequality.

Hyun's defense countered that the transactions were legitimate, saying he had entered into contracts with active teachers to obtain questions for inclusion in textbooks and paid the agreed amounts. The defense also said Hyun had simply provided students with high-quality problems, describing it as a natural duty for a math instructor who also authors teaching materials.

In his own final statement, Hyun said he felt saddened that the hard work of the teachers involved appeared to have been entirely discredited, and asked the court for "a clear ruling."


notstrong@heraldcorp.com