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.