Recently, tennis in Korea has been experiencing a revival with an explosion in the number of players.
The Korea Tennis Association, which is supposed to support and lead the development of tennis, has been plagued by corruption by its president.안전놀이터
Several cases of suspected embezzlement have been confirmed.
Reporter Lee Kyung-jae reports exclusively.
[Reporter]
Chung Hee-gyun took over as president of the Korea Tennis Association in March 2021.
In the same month, a corporation called the Korea Junior Tennis Development Foundation was created, with Chung and other officials as directors.
Since then, sponsorship fees from various contracts signed under the association’s name, as well as some of the advertising revenue from international tournaments, have been deposited into this sponsorship organization’s bank account instead of the association’s.
160 million won was confirmed.
Several association employees testified that the account was used as if it were the president’s personal account.
[Former employee A, Korea Tennis Association] It’s not a normal way, and it’s supposed to be opened and disclosed and used, but there’s no information on how it was used.
In addition, the general accounting of the KTA was handled by my wife’s company, who is an accountant.
[Former employee of the Korea Tennis Association B: I know that the chairman’s wife came during the accounting season, and the person who came with her did it].
Suspicions of fraud and favoritism also abound in various contracts.
In the 260 million won ball contract, the bid was awarded at 140,000 won per box, but the actual contract was awarded at the list price of 198,000 won.
The association lost money on the contract.
[Tennis equipment company representative: List price, honestly, if you go in a large quantity, you get a discount, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in the 25, 30 years I’ve been supplying to the association].
The Korea Tennis Association signed a supply contract for a municipal tournament last year for more than 10 million won more than the quoted price.
Since Chung took over, a certain agency has been involved in almost all of the supply contracts, and even then, the contract amount has suddenly gone up.
In June, Chung even assigned his son, a college student, to be the tournament director at a convention.
Employees were frustrated by the arbitrary and unofficial management of the association and requested an unofficial audit from the KTA, but nothing changed, and nearly a dozen employees left the association in just over two years.
[Former employee A, Korea Tennis Association] All decisions are made by the president alone, which is important, because it’s a fair competition and this is the manual, and the employees are used to it, and if they don’t do it, it’s like embezzlement or business mistakes, and they can’t do it alone, because it’s grounds for reprimand, so it’s all changed.
[Former employee B, Korea Tennis Association: You guys do what I tell you to do, I’ll be in charge, so just do whatever I tell you to do].
Chairman Chung Hee-gyun explained that he personally created the sponsorship organization to collect money and spend it on junior development, and that the sponsorship organization actually served to help the association, and that he did not use a single corporate card.
YTN’s Lee Kyung-jae.