Park Young-woo, the former chairman of the Daeyou Winia Group—who was indicted on charges of failing to pay tens of billions of won in wages and severance packages—was sentenced to 4 years in prison in his appellate trial on the 13th. Following the ruling, Park was immediately taken into custody.

The 2nd Criminal Division of the Suwon High Court (Presiding Judges Kim Geun-woo, Lim Jae-nam, and Seo Jeong-hee) sentenced Park to four years in prison for violating the Labor Standards Act and other charges during his appellate trial held earlier that day, ordering him to be legally detained in court.

Other co-defendants implicated in the wage arrears case also received sentences: Ahn Byung-deok, former CEO of Winia, was sentenced to 6 months in prison suspended for 2 years; Park Hyun-chul, former CEO of Winia Electronics, received 2 years and 6 months in prison suspended for 4 years; Kim Hyuk-pyo, CEO of Winia, was sentenced to 3 years in prison suspended for 5 years along with a fine of 10 million KRW; and Wi Dae-sung, former CEO of Winia MF, was sentenced to 1 year in prison suspended for 3 years.

The appellate court stated, "Considering that the total amount of unpaid wages by the defendants exceeds 50 billion KRW, the gravity of the crime is heavy." The court added, "As the de facto business manager, defendant Park Young-woo should have prevented wage and severance pay arrears, but he failed to make sufficient efforts." It further criticized, "Despite Park's management decisions being the cause of the wage arrears, his attempts to evade responsibility reflect poor character."

The court explained the sentencing factors, noting, "We considered external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine which caused financial distress, the partial recovery of damages, and the fact that some workers do not wish for punishment."

Park and his co-defendants were indicted on charges of withholding 50 billion KRW in wages and severance pay from 670 employees across affiliates like Winia Electronics and Winia between 2020 and 2024.

Park had previously been sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison respectively in two separate first-instance trials concerning wage arrears. The appellate court consolidated and reviewed these two cases to determine his final sentence.

Regarding the co-indicted former and current CEOs of the affiliates, the court stated that their sentences were determined by taking into account the massive scale of the arrears, the fact that the companies were already facing financial hardship when they took office, and that investment-related decisions were predominantly led by Park.

Meanwhile, Park, CEO Kim Hyuk-pyo, and Group Chief Secretary Kim were also indicted on charges of transferring 1 billion KRW of company funds to Park's personal account without necessary procedures such as a board resolution, approximately 30 minutes before filing for rehabilitation proceedings for Winia on October 4, 2023. However, they were acquitted of this charge in both the first and second instances.

Having been detained and indicted in March 2024, Park had been standing trial without detention after being granted bail ahead of the expiration of his detention period in September of last year. However, with this ruling, he received a prison sentence and was remanded into custody.

Kang Yong-seok, head of the Winia Electronics labor union who observed the trial, told reporters, "While we welcome the detention of former Chairman Park, we feel frustrated as proper victim compensation has not yet been achieved."

Meanwhile, due to ongoing financial difficulties, major affiliates of the Daeyou Winia Group, including Winia Electronics, have successively undergone bankruptcy proceedings since last year. The Daeyou Winia wage arrears case was also included among the 12 cases selected for a secondary investigation into suspected abuse of prosecutorial authority by the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecutor's Human Rights Respect Future Committee last August, with truth-finding efforts currently underway.

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