[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] On the 29th, Yoon Mi-hyang, the elected member of the Democratic Party of Korea, addressed allegations that she collected donations through personal bank accounts and used them for personal gain, stating, "It was a wrong judgment and a careless thought," but also said, "I did not use the money that came into the accounts for personal purposes."
Yoon held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office that afternoon to explain this.
She said, "While working with Jeong Dae-hyeop, I conducted nine fundraising activities using four personal bank accounts. When the fundraising was not for all the grandmothers, I collected donations into my personal account as the representative, but in hindsight, it was a wrong judgment."
Regarding the fundraising for the late grandmother Kim Bok-dong’s funeral expenses, Yoon explained, "Since the Citizens' Funeral Committee, which has no legal status, was in charge of the funeral, it was not appropriate to use Jeong Dae-hyeop’s account, and it was customary to use personal accounts frequently, so I opened one. Temporary donations or funeral expense fundraisers often used the personal accounts of the organization’s representative, and I did not have a strong sense of problem with this."
She apologized, saying, "I am sorry for acting with the careless thought that as long as the amount was not problematic, it was acceptable. I used the funds by covering the necessary expenses for the projects and transferring the remaining money to Jeong Dae-hyeop’s account as a way of settling accounts, but after reviewing the recent account transfer details one by one, I found some sloppy parts. I feel ashamed of myself."
However, Yoon emphasized, "Just because the fundraising was done through personal accounts does not mean the money that came into the accounts was used personally."
She explained, "I reviewed each transaction in the accounts. As a result, about 280 million won was raised through nine fundraising activities, and about 230 million won was used according to the fundraising purposes. The remaining approximately 50 million won was confirmed to have been used for Jeong Dae-hyeop’s projects."
Yoon added, "I almost always noted the reason for the transfers in the memo section of the account transfers, so the nature of each transaction can be identified. Since there are numerous transaction details over more than six years since 2014, I cannot explain every detail, but since this is one of the allegations, I will provide detailed explanations during the investigation process."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
