SEOUL — A former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee has been charged with taking bribes from a South Korean subcontractor working on the Camp Humphreys expansion project.
Yang Hwa-sok, a South Korean citizen, was put in pretrial confinement and indicted on the charges earlier in the week, Pyeongtaek chief prosecutor Im Seok-pil said late Thursday afternoon.
Army Corps of Engineers officials have said that Yang, 57, resigned his position on Feb. 13. He had worked for the the district’s Pyeongtaek resident office since July 1999 and was responsible for enforcing “contract compliance.”
Im explained during a phone interview that Yang is accused of taking the bribes from Jinsung Development, a subcontractor hired by Seohee Construction Co. Ltd.
Im said that Yang kept “his eyes closed in supervising the construction work,” conducted by Jinsung, allowing them to avoid following regulations.
He called it a “give me a break” sort of relationship and has said that Yang accepted more than $70,000 from Jinsung.
The prosecutor wants the president of Jinsung to pay about $30,000 in fines and the vice president to pay about $20,000 in fines.
Jinsung officials were unavailable for comment Thursday afternoon and no date was set on Yang’s pending trial.
