A senior judge who received a 'fake golf club' from a businessman has been found not guilty.

An incumbent senior judge who was put on trial for receiving a fake golf club from a businessman he had known for more than a decade has been acquitted by the Supreme Court.

On the 12th of last month, the Supreme Court upheld the original ruling that acquitted senior judge A, who was indicted on charges of receiving bribes.

Chief judge A was accused of receiving 780,000 won worth of money and valuables, including fake golf club sets and fruit boxes, from businessman B, whom he got to know through the introduction of his hometown friend in 2019.

He was also accused of checking and searching B's case by accessing the court case search system several times between 2015 and 2021 after being asked by B to find out whether he would be arrested in court on the day of his sentence in the fraud trial.

Initially, the golf club received by Chief Judge A was known to be a luxury brand worth tens of millions of won, but the evaluation result revealed that it was fake.

The first and second trials acquitted the prosecutor, saying it is difficult to say that the fact that the senior judge A received the golf club was sufficiently proven, recognizing that the evidence submitted by the prosecutor alone was the price for mediation.

However, in June 2021, the Supreme Court Judge Disciplinary Committee imposed a three-month salary reduction and a disciplinary penalty of about 1 million won on senior judge A for violating the duty to maintain dignity.