[Criminal Mediation Settlement Case] Former employee deletes work files uploaded to the cloud

Law firm Veat initiated a criminal complaint against Mr. A (hereinafter referred to as the defendant) who deleted all of B Company's data uploaded to the cloud (web storage space), and represented B Company (hereinafter referred to as the complainant) to achieve a criminal mediation agreement.

1. Overview of the Case

The defendant, who had entered into a short-term employment contract with the complainant, harbored a grudge due to the termination of the employment contract and deleted files in the web storage space containing the complainant's core business data and executed the empty recycle bin function. (hereinafter "the deletion act")

In particular, the defendant recognized that the complainant only shared all data with employees in the web storage space and did not separately store it on the complainant’s computer or hard drive, and committed the crime.

2. Response of Law firm Veat

Veat sent a certified letter to the defendant stating that the deletion act was not only an unlawful act as stipulated in Article 1 of the Civil Act, but also constituted the destruction of electronic records as stipulated in Article 366 of the Criminal Act, and the offense of obstructing business by means of computers as stipulated in Article 314 (2) of the Criminal Act, and that legal action would be taken. The defendant attempted to conclude the matter through an agreement, but eventually the complainant proceeded with a criminal complaint through Veat.

Veat emphasized 1) the value of the data deleted by the defendant 2) the fact that the defendant committed the deletion act intentionally, and 3) the fact that the complainant suffered immense psychological/economic losses, and filed a complaint for obstruction of business by means of computers and violation of the Information and Communication Network Act.

3. Results of Criminal Mediation Agreement

It was inevitably expected that considerable time would be required through the litigation process if the criminal mediation case did not lead to an agreement, but based on the outstanding negotiation skills of Veat’s responsible attorney, it was possible to reach a satisfactory agreement with the complainant in a short period of time.