PB Partners, Inc. and its 37 executives and employees were investigated by prosecutors for violating the Trade Union and Labor Relations Mediation Act for allegedly encouraging 583 union members to leave the union and giving them personnel disadvantages for their affiliation with the Democratic Trade Union Confederation.

Prosecutors expanded their investigation by raiding SPC Group's headquarters and chairman's office, and requested an arrest warrant for the managing director and the senior vice president of PB Partners.

PB Partners' managing director and senior vice president had appointed a number of law firms and defense counsel from the initial labor inspection to the prosecution investigation phases, but when the case was expanded to SPC Group, they requested us to give advice.

Under the leadership of the head of the Financial and Economic Crimes Response Team, a former special prosecutor who is well versed in corporate crimes, we advised the client to prepare an opinion letter with the content as set forth below.

Since this is a case where the charges were dropped, and the company and the union have had a history of mutual beneficial cooperation, in the case of the managing director, (i) he was only in charge of labor affairs when a new corporation called PB Partners was created 18 years after he left the affiliated company, (ii) he is expected to leave the company soon, so his control over frontline business managers is weak, (iii) even according to the internal organizational chart, he is excluded from the management hierarchy and is only in charge of labor affairs, (iv) he is just an employee who follows the instructions of the CEO, (v) he has admitted to all the wrongdoings before the Labor Office, (vi) he acknowledges comprehensive responsibility for the personnel disadvantages, but has not committed any specific acts because he is not in the approval line, and (vii) he has not engaged in any behavior that the prosecution considers to be destruction of evidence. (Although there were many parts in our advice that were different from the advice given by other law firms, our advice was accepted).

Furthermore, we advised the client on the expected direction of the prosecution's investigation after the dismissal of the warrant and how to respond.

Following our advice, the arrest warrants for the managing director and the senior vice president of PB Partners were dismissed, as they were recognized as having poor criminal records but were not likely to flee or destroy evidence.

The prosecution stipulated that the crime was an organized and planned crime to eliminate the trade union at the initiative of PB Partners, which is an anti-constitutional union busting act, and hence a very serious crime. However, the clients were able to avoid imprisonment by seeking advice from Barun Law, which has excellent capabilities in labor and other corporate crimes, in a timely manner.

​□ Attorney in charge: Cho Jae-bin