A pair of aspiring paparazzi staked out two weddings in Seoul’s high-end Gangnam District, but they were not looking for celebrities. Their target: officials receiving gifts that might violate South Korea’s tough new anti-corruption law.
About 4 million people are estimated to be directly covered by the law — civil servants, employees at state-owned enterprises, teachers and journalists — which limits the value of meals and gifts that can be accepted.
With rewards worth up to 200 million won (US$181,691), it is also fueling a cottage industry of camera-wielding, receipt-scavenging vigilantes targeting expensive restaurants and fancy weddings in a nation with a deep tradition of entertaining and gift-giving.
Photo: Reuters
Some of them come for training in the art of espionage at a school that calls itself the Headquarters of Reporting for Public Good, including the two that went to the weddings.
“You can get rich and become a patriot at the same time,” school president Moon Seoung-ok told students participating in a class that included tips on using hidden cameras.
“You can pick up credit-card receipts from garbage at restaurants,” Moon told his students at his classroom housed in an office near a Seoul courthouse, where he hands out booklets about the anti-graft law. “You need to obtain evidence.”
South Korea was ranked 27th among 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.
Since the law took effect on Wednesday last week, golf-course reservations have plunged and fewer guests are attending weddings, while hospitals have posted warnings against thank-you gifts. Some groups of diners are splitting bills — a practice once almost unheard of in the nation.
Consumer and entertainment companies could lose up to 11.6 trillion won under the law, the Korea Economic Research Institute said in June.
The law limits the value of meals that can be accepted by public servants and others to 30,000 won.
Gifts are capped at 50,000 won in value, while cash gifts that are traditionally handed over in envelopes at weddings and funerals are limited to 100,000 won, under prohibitions now known as the “3-5-10” rule.
Violators can expect fines, but would face criminal prosecution for more serious infringements, such as receiving a gift of more than 1 million won or for receiving a total of more than 3 million won of gifts a year.
Businesses are scrambling to adjust.
The lobby group for the South Korean conglomerates known as the chaebol, the Federation of Korean Industries, held a seminar on Sept. 8 attended by about 400 people on how corporate officials should comply with the law.
In South Korea, the term paparazzi applies not only to photographers chasing celebrities, but to individuals who can win cash in other “report-and-reward” schemes that cover offenses such as running traffic lights or dropping cigarette butts on the street.
The Kim Young-ran Anti-bribery Act, named after the former Supreme Court justice who proposed it, has spawned the term “ran-parazzi.”
Moon tells his students to find their way into weddings and funerals.
“You have to look into who you are targeting,” Moon said in an interview. “Check obituaries in newspapers to find out who’s holding a funeral among the upper class.”
While Moon’s school does not charge tuition for the “ran-parazzi” in training, it offers to sell students gadgets, including pens and spectacles with hidden cameras.
One classroom session was attended by 10 students.
One of them, Otgoutugs Ochir, a 46-year-old housewife originally from Mongolia, said she hopes to earn enough money to buy an apartment, but she also professes patriotism as a motive.
“If the number of those who make money illegally declines, my kids can live in a better environment,” she said.
An official with the government’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Committee said citizens reporting violations should provide detailed evidence.
“Anyone reporting should submit a paper document with his or her name on it. A single photo is difficult to build a case with,” said the official, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The weddings the two students staked out did not feature the congratulatory floral displays that are standard at such occasions.
One of the students, Song Byung-soo, 60, saw that as a pre-emptive measure.
“Things have already changed lot,” said Song, who is looking to supplement the income he earns working for a company that sells auto parts, but does not expect to hit the jackpot.
“I was hesitant because I have to hurt someone by doing this, but after the training, I think it is alright. If ‘ran-parazzi’ can make our society clean without special favors or corruption, I think it is a good thing after all,” Song said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the