Korean National Police Agency
5 April 2012. Prosecutors arrested four police officers on charges of having taken $ 117,000 in bribes from Lee Gyeong-baek, a hostess bar owner. Lee operated several successful hostess bars and illegal casinos in the Gangnam district of southern Seoul. Lee is currently serving a prison term for prostitution and tax evasion.
Recently Lee confessed that he had paid $ 4,400 a month to the four policemen from 2007 to 2010. The bribe was for tips on imminent police crackdowns on hostess bars. At that time the four officers worked for the Department of Women and Juveniles of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, which was responsible for illegal practices in the entertainment industry.
Lee further told that the police officers took bribes regularly from other ten illegal hostess bar operators. According to Lee one of the police officers took more than $ 4 million by way of bribe from hostess bar operators.
For a long time the prosecutors had expressed their displeasure over police officers investigating crimes on their own because of police officers’ susceptibility to corruption.
