Prosecutors Summon Jeong Min-yong, Link to Upper Echelons in Daejang-dong... Plan to Reapply for Arrest Warrant

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] On the 23rd, the prosecution investigating the Daejang-dong development lobbying and preferential treatment allegations conducted supplementary investigations by summoning lawyer Jeong Min-yong, former head of the Strategic Business Office at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, who played a linking role with the 'upper echelon' including Seongnam City.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's dedicated investigation team (led by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kim Tae-hoon) reportedly summoned lawyer Jeong as a suspect for questioning on the same day.

Lawyer Jeong was excluded from the core figures indicted by the prosecution the previous day regarding the Daejang-dong allegations. Meanwhile, Kim Man-bae, major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, lawyer Nam Wook, owner of Cheonhwa Dongin No.4, and accountant Jeong Young-hak, owner of Cheonhwa Dongin No.5, were prosecuted as accomplices for breach of trust and other charges.

Lawyer Jeong is also an indispensable figure in these allegations. He is suspected of conspiring with former Planning Headquarters Director Yoo Dong-gyu and the 'Daejang-dong Four' to structure the project so that Hwacheon Daeyu and Cheonhwa Dongin Nos. 1 to 7 would receive at least 182.7 billion KRW in profits, causing equivalent losses to the corporation. The prosecution believes that lawyer Jeong was involved in the entire project, from deciding the criteria for selecting private business operators to drafting the collusion guidelines aimed at maximizing profits. There are also allegations that he personally brought the guideline document to the Mayor's Office during the drafting of the Daejang-dong development project guidelines.

The prosecution filed a detention warrant for lawyer Jeong on the 1st, but it was dismissed by the court. They are currently conducting supplementary investigations with plans to reapply for the detention warrant. In particular, they are examining what communications lawyer Jeong had between the working-level staff and the 'upper echelon' while acting as a special unit under former Director Yoo during the Daejang-dong development project process.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the prosecution also summoned and investigated Mr. Na, the representative of a civil engineering construction company suspected of delivering money to development project stakeholders in exchange for civil engineering project rights, and Mr. Han, head of the Development Project Team 2 at the corporation, who was in charge of the Daejang-dong development project as a member of Development Team 1.

Mr. Na is the person who, between 2014 and 2015, handed over 2 billion KRW to Mr. Lee, the representative of the Daejang-dong development project sales agency and a relative of former Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo, while requesting the award of civil engineering project rights. However, after failing to secure the civil engineering project rights, Mr. Na demanded the money back from Mr. Lee, who is known to have received about 10 billion KRW from Kim Man-bae in 2019 and returned it to Mr. Na.