U.S. court gives hefty jail term to Korean businessman for bribery

SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean businessman has been sentenced by a
U.S. court to five years in prison and fined US$50,000 on charges of giving a
bribe to a former U.S. military official to win an Internet contract at a U.S.
base in South Korea, a newspaper report said Sunday.

The businessman, identified only by his surname Jeong, is accused of offering
bribes to the former Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) official, in
return for keeping a $206-million contract selling Internet and phone services to
the U.S. troops in South Korea, said the weekend edition of the Stars and
Stripes.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed here as a deterrent against North Korea,
which remains technically at war with the allies after the 1950-53 Korean War
ended in a truce.
Henry Lee Holloway, the American official, who served as AAFES general manager at
Osan Air Base, south of Seoul, between June 2000 and August 2005, was also
sentenced to a three-year jail term and a $5,000 fine and ordered to forfeit
$70,000.
The newspaper said that Holloway "turned a blind eye" to complaints raised by
customers as he began to receive the money from Jeong.
The bribe was in the form of cash, stock offerings, entertainment, travel and
other items of value, as well as prostitutes, dining and drinking, noted the
newspaper, citing court documents.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)

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