LIG Defense official arrested in alleged DAPA bribery case

An official of defense contractor LIG Defense & Aerospace has been arrested for allegedly offering bribes to an employee of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the prosecution said Thursday.

LIG Defense & Aerospace, or LIG D&A, replaced LIG Nex1 as the defense contractor's name on March 31.

The LIG D&A official is accused of providing 460 million won ($325,000) in money and valuables to the DAPA employee in exchange for preferential treatment during the bidding process for submarine and other weapon development projects between 2021 and 2023, according to the Suwon District Prosecutors Office.

The DAPA employee was indicted on July 28 while in detention on bribery charges. Prosecutors suspect the employee provided confidential bidding information or gave LIG D&A high scores in proposal evaluations in return for bribes, which were allegedly received through his father-in-law's bank account.

Prosecutors had previously requested arrest warrants for two LIG D&A officials, but a court dismissed the requests, citing reasons including the need to guarantee their right to defense.

Prosecutors then conducted further investigations and obtained an arrest warrant for one of the two officials.

Yonhap