A Seoul court sentenced a former high-ranking prosecutor to seven years behind bars on Tuesday for receiving large sums of bribes in exchange for favors.

Kim Kwang-joon was found guilty of receiving some 380 million won ($333,000) worth of bribes from several suspects he was investigating, including Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind behind the country’s biggest-ever pyramid scheme.

The Seoul Central District Court also ordered the 52-year-old former prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office to pay a fine of 40 million won in addition to forfeiting the 380 million won he took in bribes.

“Stern punishment for Kim is inevitable considering that public confidence in the prosecution was deeply hurt,” Judge Lee Jeong-seok said in his ruling. (Yonhap News)