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| Investigators from the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency carry seized materials from their search of the office of WeDisk, a company owned by Yang Jin-ho, an IT CEO, in Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Yang is accused of abusing and assaulting workers. / Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
Police have searched the offices and home of Yang Jin-ho, an IT entrepreneur, over his alleged abuse and assault of workers and killing of chickens.
His companies will also be subject to labor authorities' special inspection for alleged violation of labor-related laws.
On Friday, some 40 investigators from the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency searched 10 locations, including Yang's house in Bundang in Seongnam, and the offices of WeDisk nearby and Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province ― two of several companies Yang owns.
The search followed the recent disclosure of video clips in which he slaps a former employee of WeDisk and forces workers to kill chickens with a crossbow and a Japanese sword at a workshop.
The investigators seized the crossbow, arrows, the sword and computer files related to the allegations of assault, coercion and animal abuse. "With the seized materials, we'll see whether he committed additional offenses," a police officer said.
The police plan to summon Yang for questioning as early as next week.
In one video clip taken in April 2015, Yang slaps a former worker's head and face several times and curses him in front of other workers at the WeDisk office. He orders the man to kneel down and apologize for leaving sarcastic comments on the company's bulletin board.
Yang ordered other employees to film the assault so he could keep the footage as a "souvenir."
In another clip of a workshop in 2016, Yang orders workers to kill chickens with a crossbow and a sword to make chicken soup.
Other testimony from former workers include Yang forcing them to eat raw garlic or dye their hair specific colors, forbidding workers from going to the bathroom while drinking, and firing a worker for washing lettuce too slowly at a workshop.
Yang said Thursday he would resign from all posts in his companies because of the controversy.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it would launch a special two-week inspection of five of Yang's companies next week.
"The inspection is in response to the alleged assault and coercion amid the situation that bullying in the workplace has emerged as a serious social problem," a ministry official said.
The ministry will check whether Yang violated labor-related acts and whether there were additional abuses.
"For cases confirmed as Labor Law violations, we'll take stern measures, such as imposing fines or filing a complaint with the prosecution," the official said. "For cases not serious enough to be in violation of the law, we'll still tell the firms to correct unfair treatment to workers such as bullying."
Separately from the abuse allegations, Yang had been under police investigation over the alleged distribution of porn and illegally filmed sexual videos through his online file-sharing sites WeDisk and Filenori. It is also alleged he has been at the center of online porn and spycam footage business by running file-sharing sites where such videos are uploaded and also operating agencies that remove such clips at the victims' request.
Prosecutors also have been investigating Yang for assaulting a professor in 2013 after suspecting he had an affair with his wife.
