Gwangju District Court's Suncheon Branch acquits all defendants
A serving police officer indicted without detention on charges of running a "ghost hospital" and pocketing billions of won was acquitted Thursday after nearly two years of trial.
The first criminal division of the Suncheon Branch of Gwangju District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Yong-gyu, acquitted police inspector Choi, Choi's wife Lee, and physician Kim on charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and violations of the Medical Service Act. Nurse Jo, charged with aiding and abetting the scheme, was also acquitted.
The couple were indicted in December 2024 on charges of operating a clinic in Suncheon under Kim's name from July 2020 to June 2023 and collecting 2.7 billion won ($2.02 million) in long-term care and medical benefits.
The Medical Service Act prohibits unlicensed individuals from hiring medical professionals and opening or operating a medical institution under the name of a licensed practitioner or a nonprofit corporation.
"To determine whether a facility is a ghost hospital, it is essential to confirm how operating profits were distributed and to whom they accrued — but we found insufficient grounds to conclude that Choi and the others received any share of the profits," the court said in its ruling. "The evidence presented did not go beyond mere suspicion and fell far short of the overwhelming and superior standard required to overturn the presumption of innocence."
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