[비즈한국] Mapo-gu District Mayor Park Kang-soo has lost his third and final appeal in a lawsuit challenging the mandatory disposal of stocks in a media company owned by his family. Mayor Park had filed the suit to overturn a decision by the Ministry of Personnel Management's Blind Trust Review Committee, which ruled that the media company's stocks were related to his official duties. The Supreme Court recently upheld the lower court's ruling against the plaintiff (Mayor Park). Although the court ultimately sided with the Blind Trust Review Committee, the obligation to dispose of the stocks has effectively been nullified as the mayor has transferred all his shares to his children.
It has been confirmed that on September 25, the Supreme Court issued a decision to dismiss the appeal filed by Mapo-gu District Mayor Park Kang-soo against the Ministry of Personnel Management’s Blind Trust Review Committee, regarding his request to cancel the ruling on the stocks' relation to his official duties. With this final decision, the lower court's ruling stands, meaning Mayor Park has lost all proceedings in his challenge against the review committee's decision (Related article: [Exclusive] Mapo-gu District Mayor Park Kang-soo loses lawsuit challenging blind trust of family-owned media company stocks). However, because Mayor Park’s children, who are financially independent, have taken ownership of all the stocks, the obligation to dispose of them has disappeared.
The blind stock trust system mandates that public officials, or their related parties (spouse, lineal ascendants and descendants), must sell or place in a blind trust (entrusting to a third-party trustee) any stocks exceeding a total value of 30 million won within two months. Notably, married daughters or individuals who have opted out of disclosing their assets do not fall under the category of "related parties."
In July 2023, the Blind Trust Review Committee notified Mayor Park to dispose of the stocks in Thank You Media Group and Ilgan Sisa Newspaper, which were owned by the mayor's family, citing a conflict of interest with his official duties. The issue arose because Mayor Park, his spouse, and his children held 60,000 shares of Thank You Media Group and 20,000 shares of Ilgan Sisa Newspaper at the time he was elected as Mayor of Mapo-gu during the 8th National Simultaneous Local Elections in June 2022. The two companies operate media outlets such as 'Thank You News' and 'Sisa Focus,' and the mayor previously served as their founder and CEO.
The Blind Trust Review Committee determined that media ownership was related to the mayor's duties, such as media management and the promotion of district policies. It also judged that a conflict of interest could arise from the fact that the headquarters of the media company owned by the mayor's family was located in Mapo-gu.
Upon receiving the results of the review, which deemed the media stocks to be duty-related, Mayor Park transferred 20,000 shares of Thank You Media Group under his name to his eldest son and eldest daughter (10,000 shares each) in August 2023, and moved the media company's headquarters to Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, in November of that year.
During the legal proceedings, Mayor Park's spouse also gifted her 12,000 shares of Ilgan Sisa Newspaper to their eldest daughter. According to asset disclosure data from the Government Public Service Ethics Committee as of March 27, 2025, the eldest daughter is excluded from the disclosure list starting this year due to her marriage, while the eldest son has opted out of disclosure citing independent livelihoods. Based on 2024 asset disclosures, the value of the media company stocks amounts to approximately 3.476 billion won.
Mayor Park filed a lawsuit to cancel the Blind Trust Review Committee’s decision, arguing that his family's media stocks were unrelated to his mayoral duties, but he lost in both the first and second trials. He sought a ruling from the Supreme Court after disposing of the stocks held by himself and his spouse, but failed to overturn the result. The second trial, which dismissed his appeal, largely cited the reasoning from the first trial at the Seoul Administrative Court.
The Seoul High Court, which oversaw the second trial, affirmed the first ruling, stating, "In an administrative litigation, the legality of an administrative action must be judged based on the situation at the time of the action, unless there are special circumstances." Although Mayor Park's side argued that "it is practically difficult to sell the media stocks, and there is absolutely no possibility of gaining excess profit or avoiding losses," the court strictly interpreted the duty-relatedness, stating, "Even if a stock sale is impossible, one could influence stock prices through policy decisions, contract executions, or budget spending closely related to the company in question during the performance of duties. In such cases, the conflict of interest arising between the public official’s assets and their duties damages the trust relationship between the public and the head of the local government."
While the lawsuit spanning three levels of court confirmed the duty-relatedness of the family-owned media stocks, it is unlikely that Mayor Park will sell or put the shares into a blind trust. This is because, while the lawsuit regarding the cancellation of the blind trust order was ongoing, the children who received the shares from the mayor and his spouse have become exempt from being "related parties" due to marriage or opting out of asset disclosure.
When asked whether these individuals are exempt from the duty to dispose of the stocks, the Ministry of Personnel Management responded, "A married female lineal descendant or a lineal descendant who has opted out of asset registration does not fall under the category of 'related parties' subject to mandatory stock disposal, and therefore they are not subject to the duty to comply."
Following the dismissal of the appeal, Mayor Park stated through the media that "stocks held in the children's names are classified as the children's separate assets." When asked about plans for stock disposal, an official from the Mapo-gu Office said, "It is difficult to provide an answer as the mayor and his spouse no longer hold the stocks."