[Report file] The tough golf booking war, police and city councilors without blood?

[Membership trading company]

"New Seoul CC has about 2,000 members in hall 36. If 2,000 members try to make a reservation on Saturday at the same time, competition will be fierce. You have to work hard and make a reservation."

When I was in college, I had to sign up for a course, make a concert ticket reservation, and wait in front of the computer and press the refresh button on time.

Everyone will be there at least once.

But these days, even if you want to play a round of golf, the era has come when you have to fight a bloody booking war.

You have to wait for the day when the reservation site opens and then 'gookle' before you can barely get a booking.

Even if you have a membership that costs hundreds of millions of won, it is useless if you are pushed back in this first-come-first-served competition.

New Seoul CC Golf Course, which we covered this time, has a membership price of 350 million won, and it is famous for its fierce reservation war.

The reservation system for members opens at 10 am on a set day every month.

Non-members can make reservations only during their spare time, but it is difficult for members to make reservations during peak seasons or holidays, so it is unnerving for non-members to make reservations.

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However, New Seoul CC Golf Course has been operating a system called company ownership.

It is a bit difficult to express what the company holds, but you can think of it as

.

So-called VIPs can bypass the reservation system and

-free' with just one phone call to the golf course staff .

The police investigation into the New Seoul CC golf course started with a complaint from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

In the self-audit, the former CEO received a booking request from his acquaintances and held the reservation right and was arrogant.

According to the audit results, it was revealed that the former CEO had received a request from his acquaintances to let him play golf at his preferred time, and made unreasonable reservations to employees from time to time regardless of the member reservation start date.

If there is no remaining time in the requested time zone, he ignores the reservation waiting order and assigns his acquaintances first.

[Obtain a list of company holdings for 3 years]

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SBS has obtained data on the reservation status of the company's holdings for the New Seoul CC Golf Course for the past three years.

There is a list of people who requested a reservation by date and time, and the golf course staff who made the reservation, and unexpected names popped up from this list.

Those are the names of current and former police officers and city councilors.

Sergeant Kim Seong-hoon, who joined the job in 2015 and worked as an intelligence team investigator at the Gyeonggi Gwangju Police Station.

In March, I was in charge of the New Seoul CC golf course case commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

However, in the process of receiving testimony from witnesses and investigating the company's holdings, the investigation took an unexpected direction.

As the former and current police officers of the Gwangju Police Station secured statements and evidence that they were provided with reservation convenience as part of the company, they suddenly found themselves in a situation where they had to investigate the boss and colleagues of their organization.

[Inspector A]

"To be honest, all the brothers and sisters do it. The

chiefs, the managers, and when a reservation (booking) comes in,

it's all done to those people (golf course staff)."

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Solicitation of golf bookings from police and civil service organizations.

It was done in a more systematic structure than expected.

The city hall and the police each

had people who acted as 'reservation windows'.

In the case of city hall, when a city council member requests a golf course reservation from an official from the sports department, this official confirms the reservation through the golf course staff.

In the case of the Gwangju Police Station, it is known that several evidences were found during the investigation that the intelligence officers belonging to the Intelligence Division had acted as reservation windows in a similar way.

During the interview process, it was also confirmed that such golf booking requests have been customary for a long time among police officers.

[Captain A: I, too, honestly made reservations (booking) for not only New Seoul (CC golf course) but also other places (Gyeonggi) Gwangju golf course.]

[Chief B: I heard about New Seoul (CC golf course) related matters In the past, I was in charge of reservations (bookings) at the police station for 5 years]

Around mid-May, when the New Seoul CC golf course investigation was in full swing.

Police officers whose names appear in the reservation status file obtained by SBS called Sergeant Kim Seong-hoon and confessed directly.

Bookings were made this way at other golf courses, and he says he acted as a teller.

However, it is not something that should be passed on as a long-standing practice of soliciting golf course reservations.

This is an obvious misconduct.

First of all, the employee who provided the reservation convenience and the incumbent public official who received the reservation convenience are all in violation of the Anti-Graft Act.

As a result of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission's interpretation of the rights, it is not necessarily financial or property benefits such as membership rights, but providing convenience is also included in tangible and intangible economic benefits.

Here, if job relevance and remuneration are recognized, punishment for bribery is possible.

Furthermore, Sergeant Kim believed that, in addition to the current and former police officers revealed during the investigation, more police officers and high-ranking officials were involved in the case.

In fact, there were many names familiar to reporters on the list, but Sergeant Kim planned to expand the scope of the investigation after completing the investigation of former and current police and public officials.

[From Gwangju Police Station to Gonjiam Police Box]

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However, Sergeant Kim is no longer able to continue the investigation of the New Seoul CC golf course.

Sergeant Kim is working on the patrol team at the Konjiam Police Box after a recent appointment.

Sergeant Kim asserts that the head of the Gwangju Police Station's investigation department and the chief deliberately tried to delay the investigation of public officials and former and present police officers, and when they raised an objection to this, the superiors ordered them to write a personnel complaint and sent them to the police box.

The Gwangju Police Station side said that Sergeant Kim himself wanted to change and appoint an investigator, and he has not blocked the investigation of the current and former police officers.

While the claims of both sides are in conflict, the Seongnam District Office began an investigation in earnest with Sergeant Kim filing a complaint with the prosecution on charges of obstruction of the exercise of the right to abuse of power by the Gwangju Police Station command over the suspicion of refusing to investigate and the personnel measures.

Prosecutors are planning to analyze the list of illegal reservations held by the company at New Seoul CC Golf Course again, and then look in all directions to see if there are any more incumbent high-ranking officials involved.

"What kind of world is the world now, and you made me book golf, asking questions like this. If anyone

reports such a thing, I'll kill that bastard. He's devouring the organization."

This is what one of the police officers who was designated as the 'reservation window' met with the reporters.

Former and current police officers who were identified as being involved in the fraudulent reservation case showed the same reaction toward the reporters as if they had kissed each other.

“

It was the same with the people who even called Sgt Kim first and conciliated him.

The investigator who courageously denounced the absurd practices inside the organization was being denounced as a being that gnawed at the organization in an instant.

After reporting the New Seoul CC Golf Course, reports of similar content continue to come in to reporters.

Other golf courses are also providing the convenience of reservations so that high-ranking officials and specific people can make a reservation at any time.

I think the New Seoul CC golf course problem is just one example of a structured practice throughout our society.

Despite their words, 'what kind of world is the world and what era is the era', these kinds of things are still happening uncommonly in our society.

Starting with the New Seoul CC case, the reporters will continue to report persistently on illegal acts that continue in the name of custom.

[Exclusive] "Investigation of the golf course, get my name out of the conversation"