Kim Man-bae (detained and indicted), the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, is known to have sought ways to protect his money when allegations of corruption in the Daejang-dong development surfaced in 2021. During this process, the prosecution judged that he used a criminal case lawyer introduced by former Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam as if he were a butler to conceal a total of 39 billion KRW in criminal proceeds.
According to the legal community on the 15th, Kim's indictment details the process of concealing these criminal proceeds in depth.
According to the indictment, when the Daejang-dong allegations emerged in August 2021 and investigations seemed imminent, Kim met with former Prosecutor General Kim, who was also mentioned in the so-called '50 Billion Club,' to discuss response strategies.
Kim was introduced to lawyer A, a former prosecutor, by former Prosecutor General Kim. Lawyer A was investigated to have acted as a liaison among Kim, Lee Han-sung, co-CEO of Hwacheon Daeyu, and Choi Woo-hyang (former vice chairman of Ssangbangwool Group), a director, regarding the concealment and disposal of criminal proceeds. The prosecution viewed that lawyer-client meetings were exploited because conversations during these meetings were not recorded.
When news broke about former lawmaker Kwak Sang-do's son receiving a retirement payment of 5 billion KRW and the submission of the 'Jung Young-hak recording' to the prosecution, Kim quickly moved to protect the criminal proceeds from Daejang-dong.
Although lawyer A said, "I will request the prosecution not to file for seizure preservation in exchange for not transferring assets," Kim began receiving dividends of 50 billion KRW from Hwacheon Daeyu and started purchasing farmland around Suwon City.
When Kim purchased farmland around Omokcheon-dong, Suwon City, around August 2021, he reportedly engaged in so-called 'land hoarding' and obtained consent forms from local landowners to proceed with urban development projects such as apartment construction in the same manner as the Daejang-dong project.
Kim was also concerned about the possibility of a tax investigation by the National Tax Service. After asking lawyer A to monitor the Seoul Regional National Tax Service's movements and receiving information that an investigation was imminent, he instructed to withdraw checks and purchase additional farmland.
Kim also used lawyer A as a communication channel with the political sphere. Regarding Jeong Jin-sang, former director of political coordination at the Democratic Party representative office, who was mentioned in the Jung Young-hak recordings but not included in the embezzlement indictment, between November 2021 and January 2022, Kim conveyed messages through lawyer A to 'political figures' not to worry. Subsequently, through lawyer A, he received a message from political figures stating, "Don't worry, the camp is taking good care of it. Jeong will never appear."
However, former director Jeong underwent a closed-door prosecution investigation in January last year. When Kim learned of this through reports, he asked lawyer A to update him on the investigation status and was informed that Jeong was being investigated for having more than 20 phone calls with Kim in a year at the prosecution.
Around that time, when the Jung Young-hak recordings were reported in the media, Kim and lawyer A also discussed that the recordings should not be made public until the 20th presidential election.
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