[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The court has approved the police's pre-indictment seizure request related to a current Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) employee who was arrested on charges of purchasing new town land using undisclosed information.
The Special Investigation Unit for Real Estate Speculation Crimes of the Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency announced on the 9th that the court approved the pre-indictment seizure request for approximately 1,700㎡ of four plots of land in the Noonsadong area of Gwangmyeong, purchased under the names of acquaintances by LH employee A and acquaintance B. Pre-indictment seizure is a court order that prevents a suspect from disposing of illegally obtained assets subject to seizure before a final verdict is reached.
It was investigated that A and others purchased these four plots by splitting shares under three different names for about 2.5 billion KRW. The current market value of the land is known to be approximately 10.2 billion KRW. The police believe that from March 2017 to December 2018, they used 36 different names to purchase 22 plots in the Noonsadong area.
The four plots subject to seizure are closely related to A and others, and the police plan to recover all the remaining 18 plots as soon as any illegal activities are confirmed.
Earlier, on the 2nd, the police applied for arrest warrants for A and another person on charges including misuse of official secrets. The pre-trial detention hearing to decide their detention will be held at 11 a.m. on the 12th at the Ansan branch of the Suwon District Court. The police also applied for pre-indictment seizure of eight plots of land purchased under family names by a former Gyeonggi Provincial Government official arrested on charges of buying land inside and around the planned Yongin Semiconductor Cluster development site, and the court approved this request on the 5th.
LH employee C from the Jeonbuk Regional Headquarters was arrested yesterday, becoming the first current or former LH employee to be detained since the launch of the government joint special investigation headquarters (Special Investigation Headquarters). C is suspected of real estate speculation using internal information in 2015 in a development area in Wanju under his wife's name. He was reportedly in charge of ‘Wanju Sambong Public Housing Project permits and design work’ at the LH Jeonbuk Regional Headquarters until recently. A former Gyeonggi Provincial Government official and a Korea Rural Community Corporation employee suspected of speculation in Yeongcheon, Gyeongbuk, were also arrested on the same day. This brings the total number of suspects detained in connection with the LH investigation to four.
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