Zoning Official Exposes Lingerie Store Owner’s Bribery Attempt

A Duluth man was willing to pay $70,000 in
bribes to Doraville city employees to obtain the zoning change he needed to
open a lingerie business, authorities said.

Jae Jun Bae, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting
to buy his way around certain zoning restrictions by offering bribes to
Doraville employees, said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “But, we
all play by the same rules. As expected, those employees reported Bae’s conduct
and, as a result, Bae has been brought to justice.”

According
to United States Attorney Yates and court documents, Bae owns Moon Lingerie, a
business located in Doraville. In April 2012, Bae bought a commercial building
on Buford Highway in Doraville that was zoned for retail use and could not be
used as a wholesale location as Bae wanted. In August 2012, Bae met with a city
of Doraville employee and attempted to give the employee an envelope of cash in
exchange for re-zoning the property. The employee did not accept the envelope
and reported Bae’s bribery attempt to local law enforcement authorities.

In October
2013, Bae asked to meet with a member of Doraville’s Community Development
Department. Based on the allegations from August, the staff member reported
Bae’s request for a meeting to law enforcement authorities and agreed to
cooperate with them.

On Oct. 17,
Bae met with the development staff member and an undercover officer who was
posing as a member of Doraville’s Community Development Department. During
the meeting, Bae agreed to pay about $100,000 to have the Buford Highway property
re-zoned to permit wholesale uses. The following day Bae met with the undercover
office and re-negotiated the rezoning price from $100,000 down to $70,000.

Authorities
say Bae made a $5,000 payment to the city staffer on Oct. 29 as a deposit toward
the re-zoning, followed by a $3,000 payment the next day to the undercover
officer, who told Bae that would secure a vote in favor of re-zoning. The FBI
arrested Bae on Nov. 14. 

“Doraville
is thankful to be able to work in partnership with the FBI. Public
corruption erodes the confidence and trust that our citizens have in our
government officials and employees,” said Doraville Police Chief John
King. “Doraville Police works tirelessly with the citizens and our
partnering law-enforcement agencies to make sure that our city is free of
corruption and filled with trust.”

Bae was
indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud and bribery on Dec.
3; he pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of honest services wire fraud. He
will be sentenced on June 30.

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