'Suspicion of Sponsorship' Former Yoon Woo-jin, Yongsan Tax Office Chief, Detained for Custody Hearing Today

Yoon Woo-jin, former head of Yongsan Tax Office Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Former Yoon Woojin, head of Yongsan Tax Office, who is accused of acting as a broker by receiving bribes from businessmen, is set to face a detention hearing. He is the elder brother of Yoon Daejin, Planning Director (Chief Prosecutor) at the Legal Research and Training Institute and a close aide to Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party’s presidential candidate (former Prosecutor General).

According to the court on the 7th, Judge Lee Sechang, in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, will conduct the pre-arrest detention hearing (warrant substantive examination) for former Director Yoon starting at 10:30 a.m. The decision on whether to detain him is expected to be made late in the afternoon.

Earlier, the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Jeong Yonghwan) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office filed a pre-arrest detention warrant for former Director Yoon on the 3rd.

Former Director Yoon is suspected of receiving money and valuables from businessman A and other so-called "sponsors" and introducing them to legal and tax authorities. The prosecution believes that from 2017 until last year, he received approximately 130 million won in cash and other benefits from A and two others in three separate instances. Additionally, prosecutors view that former Director Yoon received money and valuables last year from a corporation as a fee for legal service referrals.

In a petition submitted to the prosecution at the end of last year, Mr. A claimed that from 2018 to 2019, former Director Yoon was repeatedly invited to meetings with current and former prosecutors, senior officials from the National Tax Service, and police, where he covered meal and golf expenses multiple times. Meanwhile, Choi, a close aide accused of pocketing bribes alongside him, was indicted in detention last October.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Division 13 (Chief Prosecutor Lim Daehyuk) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office is also investigating allegations that former Director Yoon received golf entertainment and bribes from meat importers and others between 2010 and 2011, and that the prosecution at the time suppressed the investigation by dismissing police search warrants.