The chief of a local English education institute received a suspended prison term on Tuesday for instructing his employees to illegally record questions of official English proficiency tests, according to court officials.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced the Hackers Group chairman, surnamed Cho, to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the copyright law, they said. His brother also received a suspended prison term for the same charge.

“(The two) used elaborate and specialized methods to leak the questions in an aim to publish (English) teaching materials,” Judge Lee Sung-yong said in his ruling.

The two were indicted last February for directing some 50 employees to steal the copyright-protected exam questions while taking the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC, and the Test of English Proficiency developed by Seoul National University, also called TEPS, between 2007 and early last year, they said.

The employees recorded or videotaped written and spoken questions using specially-manufactured tiny audio and video recorders, they said.

The website, well known for its English proficiency test preparation courses, drew droves of exam takers and prospective students.

Hackers is one of the best-known English test preparation services here, with sales reaching more than 100 billion won ($89.1 million) in 2010 alone. (Yonhap News)