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Following wide press coverage of the questionable activities of private investigators, prosecutors in Daegu have indicted 14 people including the director of firm of private eyes for conspiring to reveal confidential information. The offenses included obtaining mobile phone and fixed line records and other means of spying on the spouses and lovers of the private investigator's clients.
Prosecutors asked for arrest warrants for five people including an 'information dealer" identified as Sohn, 44, for illegally acquiring personal information from mobile operators and police officers. They booked nine others including a police officer identified as Jang, 34, for passing confidential information to Sohn.
LG Telecom, whose staff leaked the information, was fined W3 million, while KTF and KT's customer service company MPC Inc. were fined W20 million and W10 million respectively. SK Telecom, from where the largest amount of information was leaked, is still under investigation.
Sohn is accused of buying and selling the phone records of 95 SK Telecom subscribers, 42 KTF customers, 35 LG Telecom customers, and 28 KT customers. He bought the records for W100,000 each and sold them on to the private investigators. Sohn also approached Jang to solicit personal information about individuals such as citizen numbers. The head of the firm of private investigators, identified as Kim, then charged clients W200,000 to W300,000 for the records.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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