[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The investigation of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was re-summoned in connection with the Wirye and Daejang-dong development corruption case, ended without a late-night interrogation.
According to the legal community on the 10th, Lee, who appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office at around 11:22 a.m., finished the investigation and reviewed the statement at around 8:50 p.m. The prosecution requested a late-night interrogation due to the extensive content requiring investigation, but Lee's side reportedly declined. It has not yet been decided whether he will be summoned again. The prosecution is expected to decide the direction of the case after comprehensively reviewing the investigation contents.
Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is under suspicion of breach of trust related to preferential treatment allegations in the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development projects, is appearing at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 10th as a suspect. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
Lee underwent prosecution questioning for about 9 hours and 30 minutes that day. The investigation was conducted in the 6th-floor video recording interrogation room. On Lee's side, lawyer Kim Jin-hyung from the law firm Garosu participated, while prosecutors Jeong Il-kwon from the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Nam Dae-ju from Division 3 participated on behalf of the prosecution.
Lee is accused of violating the Anti-Corruption Act by leaking internal secrets of Seongnam City or Seongnam Urban Development Corporation to private business operators through close aides such as Jeong Jin-sang, former policy secretary to the Seongnam mayor, during the Wirye and Daejang-dong development projects from 2010 to 2018 when he served as Seongnam mayor, enabling them to gain enormous profits. He is also charged with breach of duty for causing a huge loss to Seongnam City by finalizing the removal of the excess profit recovery clause, which prevented additional profits beyond the confirmed 182.2 billion won.
The prosecution believes that private operators gained unfair profits of 788.6 billion won from the Daejang-dong project and 21.1 billion won from the Wirye New Town project. The Seongnam City side bore huge losses in the Daejang-dong project equivalent to the profits earned by the private companies.
The prosecution has identified that Lee, as Seongnam mayor, approved or tacitly allowed the leakage of confidential information by his close aides and, in return, received various election support or funds from private business operators through former secretary Jeong.
Lee appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 28th of last month and appeared for the second time on the 10th, 13 days later. Including the investigation on the 10th of last month at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Seongnam Branch regarding the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship fund suspicion,' this was his third appearance before the prosecution.
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