Yoo Chang-hoon, a senior judge at the Seoul Central District Court, said on the 30th that he rejected arrest warrants for former coach Kim Jong-guk and former general manager Jang Jung-seok, who are suspected of committing malpractice, respectively.
According to Newsis, Chief Judge Yoo said of the two, "It is necessary to guarantee the right to defend against whether the money received is in return for illegal solicitation, considering the status of advertising sponsorship to the club before the time of receiving money, the details of advertising sponsorship by the sponsor, and the involvement of the suspect in light of the statements of those involved."
"It is difficult to say that there is a risk of destroying evidence or running away, given the investigation details, the interrogation attitude of the suspect, who is fully aware of the responsibility for causing the water, and the suspect's career," he said, adding, "It is difficult to admit the reason and necessity of detention."
The two are suspected of receiving bribes from a coffee company A, which signed a sponsorship contract with KIA Tigers since August 2022, and intervened in the process of selecting a sponsor. A coffee company operated a home run field named after the company at the ballpark and attached an advertisement on its uniform. According to the prosecution, former head coach Kim Jong-kook met with the chairman of company A in June of the same year, proposed an advertisement for an extension, and reported this to former head Jang. In addition, the team reportedly checked the progress of the advertisement.
The prosecution investigated that former head coach Kim Jong-guk received a total of 100 million won in bribes on several occasions, and former general manager Jang Jung-seok received tens of millions of won. Specifically, in the case of former head coach Kim Jong-guk, it was reported that in July 2022 when the season was in full swing, he met with the company's chairman at Incheon Munhak Stadium and received 60 million won checks.
Last year, Kia suffered from personal corruption. However, less than a year has passed and another corruption scandal has shocked fans. In late March last year, former KIA Tigers general manager Jang Jung-seok was suspected of asking for back money in the process of negotiating an extension contract with Park Dong-won in 2022. After learning about the details, Kia convened a disciplinary committee meeting, and Jang conveyed his position to the club in writing. At that time, Kia said, "I heard both sides' positions, but decided that the conversation itself was inappropriate. After confirming the facts, I voluntarily reported it to the KBO clean baseball center in the morning." Jang had a close relationship with Park Dong-won as a manager and frontman since his days with the Kiwoom Heroes. With that relationship, he successfully traded in April 2022 and even sought an extension contract. However, multi-year contract negotiations that continued from the middle of the season did not go smoothly, and Park Dong-won eventually became a free agent and transferred to the LG Twins for four years and 6.5 billion won.
In the end, Kia held a disciplinary committee on March 29 last year and decided to dismiss Jang after causing a stir for his alleged violation of dignity. When asked about the reason for Jang's dismissal, the Kia Tigers said, "After receiving a tip that Jang made a request for money and valuables during negotiations with a player in 2022, we found out the facts and other factors. However, regardless of the facts, we decided that we could not tolerate the wrong behavior of demanding money and valuables during the negotiations with our players, so we referred him to the disciplinary committee and took the final dismissal." At that time, Park Dong-won checked the file he recorded in person during the face-to-face meeting with Jang at the players' association, and the contents were quite direct and detailed. Park and the players' association said that the remarks were not "joking" as explained by Jang's side. At the time, Jang Dong-cheol, secretary-general of the Korea Professional Baseball Players Association, told Star News, "I asked him to give me some of the money because he would give me more than a down payment. Park Dong-won also had a lot of concerns about doing this to Jang, who was a coach and mentor of Kium. However, he thought it had to be corrected somehow and wanted to resolve it quickly. We could have stepped up faster, but it seems that it took time (to check the facts) because such reports are common to the chairman's office." Asked if there were any additional reports related to Jang, Secretary-General Jang said, "There were no additional reports other than Park Dong-won," adding, "We are not thinking about any additional responses at this time, but if the incident flows in a different direction than the fact, we will take action."
KIA also bowed its head. At the time, Kia said in a statement, "We apologize to our fans. We bow down and apologize to KIA Tigers fans and all fans who love and support the professional baseball league for the recent act that has damaged the dignity of General Manager Jang. We also apologize to all members of the league as it will disrupt the entire KBO League, which is set to open soon. KIA Tigers immediately grasped the facts and decided that the request for money or other goods was not justified under any circumstances, so they held a disciplinary committee and immediately dismissed the team. The team will continue to strive to educate all team members and executives on compliance to ensure that such an incident does not happen again. We apologize once again to the fans who love the professional baseball and support the KIA Tigers," he said.
The KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) then moved. On April 6 last year, the KBO said, "We deeply sympathized with the seriousness of the issue and requested an investigation by the prosecution to deal sternly with the recent allegations of corruption and dignity damage in the league," adding, "We asked the prosecution to investigate Jang Jung-seok, who was dismissed from KIA on suspicion of demanding money and valuables during negotiations with players. The KBO reviewed the background documents and related data submitted by its former team, and on April 4, it asked the prosecution to investigate the case on April 5 through review and discussion by the investigation committee." He also stressed, "We will make more efforts to preventive education in order to eradicate illegal, fraudulent, and dignity-damaging activities of league members, and take stern measures through thorough fact-checking if any issues arise."
At the time, KBO responded quickly to restore trust in the entire KBO league, saying, "The days of covering up are over." At the time, KBO said, "If it is deemed necessary to take disciplinary action after the investigation of the judicial institution thoroughly reveals the suspicions of the two issues (former general manager Jang Jung-seok and illegal gambling reports), the punishment committee will decide whether to take disciplinary action or not." In fact, it could have been enough if the KBO took its own disciplinary action based on baseball regulations without asking the prosecution to investigate, but the KBO responded firmly after recognizing the situation very severely. It was also a part that reflected KBO President Heo Young-yeon's will. A KBO official said, "Now, the days of just covering up like before are gone. I made the decision because I thought it would be better to leave it to the judgment of the investigative agency after a thorough investigation by the prosecution, which has the right to investigate. We plan to make more efforts to preventive education to eradicate illegal, fraud and damage to the dignity of league members, and to take stern measures through thorough fact-checking if a problem arises." And on Nov. 30 last year, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office raided and searched two to three places, including the residence of Jang, who is suspected of having been caught in breach of trust. During the process, prosecutors reportedly discovered the circumstances of the two men's crimes and launched an investigation.
Kia is set to take another leap forward in the 2024 season, which could be a fatal blow to Kia. In fact, Kia accepted an unsatisfactory report card in 2022, the first year of Kim Jong-kook's inauguration. It successfully advanced to the postseason in four years by ranking fifth in the regular season that year, but only played one game. At that time, Kia bowed its head after losing 2-6 in the first game of the wild card game against the KT Wiz. Then, in the second year since Kim Jong-kook's inauguration, the team rarely ranked high from the beginning of the season. The team's general manager left for an unfortunate incident and faced a chaotic situation, which could not be considered to have had an impact. At the end of June, the team fell to ninth place out of 10 teams. Injuries to its key players, including Kim Sun-bin and Jung Hae-young, were painful. Ultimately, Kia failed to advance to the post season by ranking sixth with 73 wins, 2 draws and 69 losses, posting a 0.514 win rate. Since then, Kia has had a fruitful stove league under the leadership of Shim Jae-hak, raising expectations for its 2024 season.
The KIA team already departed to Australia via Incheon International Airport on Tuesday. KIA will have its spring camp at Canberra Narabunda Ballpark and Okinawa Keane Stadium in Japan from Feb. 1 to March 6. The upcoming spring camp for the Kia Tigers will be divided into the first (Australia) and the second (Japan). A total of 67 players, including 20 coaching staff and 47 players (22 pitchers, 4 catchers, 12 infielders, and 9 outfielders), were scheduled to participate in the camp. After completing exercise under the "three-day rest period" of one day in training in Canberra, Australia, Kia will move to Japan on Feb. 21 and begin its practical training in the Okinawa Keane Stadium until March 6. However, the team decided to resign just before the start of the spring camp.
For Kia, the next head coach is an urgent task. The names of heavyweights such as franchise star Lee Jong-beom, Sun Dong-yeol, Kim Kyung-moon, and Ryu Joong-il are on the rise. After issuing an apology on the 29th, "We express our deep apologies to KIA fans, baseball fans who love the KBO League, and all the officials who make up the KBO League by causing concern and concern for the unfortunate incident," the KIA team said, "As soon as we were aware of the fact, we wanted to quickly find out the facts through a meeting with head coach Kim Jong-guk." He also added, "We decided that normal season management was impossible as long as allegations of bribery were raised regardless of the results of the investigation, so we suspended our duties." After terminating the contract with former coach Kim Jong-guk, who still has one year left on his contract, he promised, "I feel a great responsibility for this incident and will make every effort to improve the process of appointing coaches and coaching staff, and educate club members about compliance so as not to repeat mistakes."
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