Seoulscapade

Community meeting at the Sangdo construction site as it gets dark. The front gate is in the background.

Yesterday evening, under overcast skies, a meeting was held at the Sangdo construction site to discuss the state of things. It had been hastily called the day before. We got there around 5 pm and it went on until it after dark, with people arriving steadily.

I told my wife before heading down there, not knowing who would be present, to put on old clothes in case there was a lot of blood spilled.

Here’s where things stand. I’ve got a lot of ground to cover because of the extent of corruption uncovered.

The Bad News First: the old snake, Mr. Yoon, that dithering bastard who was kicked out as the leader of the redevelopment community—by order of the court–and who has caused us monumental problems from day one, continues to wreak havoc through his incompetence and stupidity even when not around. The reach of his poison, everyone has discovered, extends to the local council office, or the Gu office as it is called here.

1) It has transpired that a document (or documents) at the Gu office was stamped by the snake on behalf of community members. We, the community members, had no idea of it. So, this would constitute a fraud in anyone’s book. However, the Gu office is recognizing the document as legal. How can they do that, even though the court has ruled against the old snake and effectively sacked him? Well, everything has been stamped and “looks” legal and rumour has it that certain individuals at the Gu office were paid incentives—bribery went on, in other words.

The person responsible for the fake document is Mr. Han, head of Han Management, the company supposed to manage the community’s development—let’s call him the leech. The leech prepared the document but the snake would have stamped his approval on everything. This document concerns bylaws on the community and future construction. An initial document of community laws was seen by members, and everyone signed off on that, but this second document was not seen by anyone. And yet, all the stamps of all community members appear on it—put there by the leech or the snake.

The importance of this document is that it states Hanjin is the builder. So, AMCO can’t move in with that still in the way.

Believe it or not, there is a house beneath the vegetation. It stands near where the meeting was held. Apparently there is a hold-out tenant still in there.

2) The snake, Mr. Yoon, had said at a previous meeting that he would quit his position and sign a Gu office document stating his resignation. This would allow the newly elected leader, a young guy, to take over with full authority. It would also mean that AMCO could proceed. However, the snake has gone back on his word and said he will not sign anything to say he has quit. (He wasn’t at this meeting. I’ll get to why a little later.)

3) The leech, Mr. Han, reportedly bought land somewhere for 95 billion won.  Mr. Yoon has reputedly embezzled 20 billion won. The leech also took it upon himself to “create” 40 new apartments out of thin air. And he sold them! The money he would have made is anywhere between 15 billion and 30 billion won. But guess who would have stamped the documents to allow this to happen? Yes, the snake. Apparently, since the fabricated apartments have been sold, the deal cannot be undone and the purchases will have to be honored. But where is the money? No one knows yet.

4) The leech has been doing some creative accounting as well. While overspending, and as money was disappearing, he was fiddling the books to make it all look good. He also refused requests by community leaders to see his record. That’s understandable because there are very few records of transactions to see! The leech hasn’t really bothered to keep any. All the millions were managed—now get this—in an Excel file! Yes, hard to believe. Also, some deals were done in the form of land swaps.

5) It appears that different people might have been given different contracts. In addition, some were only given the size of the apartment on the contract but not the cost or what they paid. They were misled on prices. These mainly concern the old community members led by Mr. Yoon. So, it seems that the snake was ripping off his own gullible followers.

6) The leech lied to old community members about the new management company that is taking over from him, called CT Global. Daemyung, the other gangster builder, actually went to the home of AMCO’s CEO and told him that CT Global was ruining everything.

7) Hanjin is asking for money that is well beyond anything it did on the construction site.

8) The longer things are delayed the more it is costing the community because of bank loans that are already in place.

It is clear that we should have lynched these morons long ago. The list of scumbags is as follows: Mr. Yoon, Mr. Han, Hanjin, Daemyung and a handful of older community members—all out for themselves and all totally corrupt.

Empty chairs at the back before the meeting started and part of the construction site in the background, now much of it overgrown

The Good News Section: the snake and the leech are in the hands of the police! That’s right, the police are now investigating all of their corrupt dealings.

1) CT Global, who has taken over from Han Management, has seen it all before, having cleaned up 6 previous mismanagement cases concerning reconstruction developments. They are investigating the money trails and will clean up our mess. They will be asking everyone to submit their documents and finally we will see transparency and record keeping. A guy from CT explained everything at the meeting, detailing how the snake and the leech were thieves and their documents where fakes.

2) The new community leaders are going to take Hanjin and Daemyung to court for compensation for all the delays and financial suffering they have caused.

3) It seems that Lee Myung-Bak, the president, has lifted height restrictions on apartment building heights. Our development was capped at 16 or 18 floors, from memory. Now AMCO will be able to go higher. That’s fortunate given that we now have an extra 40 apartments no one accounted for!

4) Because of the Gu office problem, guards have been stationed at the gate to deny access to any Hanjin gangsters. I think this is going to be a volunteer effort. Members will volunteer as their number comes up. That means we may have to go down and perhaps do an overnighter ourselves in the near future.

5) The community will be sending a petition to Lee Myung-Bak. This may have some sway because Lee used to head Hyundai and AMCO is of course Hyundai. In fact, to make this clearer to the public, AMCO has changed its name to Hyundai AMCO.

6) Old community members have been referring to us, the newer members, as whores. We don’t know why. However, now they are beginning to realize what a thief and betrayer the snake is and what a fraud and lier the leech is. The older community members are very dumb people and will find it hard to admit what old fools they have been.

The front gate, now with all the signage taken down. No more "High Class Life" up there--no, nothing high class about the antics that have gone on

See how deep the corruption, stupidity and greed goes? So, here we are, Korea in the twenty-first century, still weighed down by corruption and people with the mentality of village peasants.

I came to this country with an open mind, but given these events and my past experiences with management at SNU, I am beginning to think that incompetent and clueless management may be a cultural tradition in Korea. One almost expects it. And by the way, Mr. Yoon, the snake, is an SNU graduate.

No one seems to be doing much to stop dirty deeds like these from happening in the first place. Something similar happened with my brother-in-law’s housing, which is to be constructed next to ours. As well as crooked dealings with the Gu office, their community leader running away with a whole lot of money. The police are still looking for him. Thankfully that’s not our problem.

Nonetheless, slowly the forces of good are overcoming the forces of evil. Thus we edge closer to our apartment’s construction, millimetre by millimetre.

Now for a sad and poigniant tale told by the new community leader. He said a 75 year old man came up to him at the last meeting, took his hands, and said that at his age he probably would not live to see his apartment built. I know how he feels.