The CEO of the company who fired the public interest reporter in the "Yang Jin-ho case" has been sentenced to prison.

Kim Jung-hoon, former CEO of the Korea Internet Research Institute, was sentenced to prison for firing a public interest reporter in the so-called "Yang Jin-ho Incident" that assaulted company employees and illegally tapped mobile phones.

The Supreme Court upheld the original ruling that sentenced Kim, who was charged with violating the Public Interest Reporters Protection Act, to one year in prison, two years of probation, and a fine of 15 million won to the Korea Internet Technology Institute, which was charged under the punishment regulations.The Korea Internet & Technology Institute, where Mr.

Yang Jin-ho was the chairman, fired Mr. A in 2020 after removing his position for exposing allegations of illegal theft of employees in 2018.

Earlier, the first trial sentenced Kim to one year in prison and a fine of 30 million won to the Korea Internet Technology Institute, saying that the nature of the crime was bad considering that the public interest reporter was not protected and was disadvantaged, but the sentence was reduced based on the agreement with the victim in the second trial.

In addition, Yang was convicted of assaulting an employee in 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison by the Supreme Court, and two years in prison was added in 2023 for lending 9.2 billion won in company money to his spouse without collateral.