SEOUL, KOREA - Amid a controversy surrounding the so-called "bureaucrat mafia" following the ferry incident that revealed the collusion between government regulators and business, it turns out scores of former high-ranking officials from the National Tax Service, Korea Customs Service, and Fair Trade Commission are working for large law firms as special advisors.

 

According to government agency sources on June 1, there are 177 former government officials at Korea's top-ten law firms including Kim & Chang, Bae, Kim & Lee, Lee & Ko, Shin & Kim, Yoon & Yang, Yulchon, Barun Law, Hwang, Mok & Park, Logos Law, and Jipyong. This is confirmed by each law firm's website.

 

By agency, the National Tax Service has produced the largest number of law firm advisors, followed by the Financial Supervisory Service (37), the Fair Trade Commission (34), the Korea Customs Service (19), the Ministry of Strategy & Finance (15), the Financial Services Commission (3), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation (1).

 

By law firm, Kim & Chang has the largest number of former government bureaucrats at 66. Of these, the number of former officials of National Tax Service and Korea Customs Service was 30 and 6, respectively. Bae, Kim & Lee also has a total of 31 former officials of tax-related government agencies on its payroll. Other law firms such as Lee & Ko, Yulchon, and Shin & Kim each have 24, 17, and 11 former tax agency officials.

 

Even though some of the former officials provide legal and tax advice to attorneys or some with attorney-at-law licenses practice law, most of them are hired for the purpose of lobbying for the agencies they used to work for previously or collecting critical information from the agencies.