On the 22nd, the prosecution will indict Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, without detention in connection with the 'Wirye and Daejang-dong development corruption' and 'Seongnam FC illegal sponsorship' cases. This comes one and a half years after the prosecution began investigating the Daejang-dong corruption case in September 2021.
According to the legal community, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) and Division 3 (Chief Prosecutor Kang Baek-shin) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office are finalizing procedures to bring Lee to trial on this day.
The prosecution decided to indict Lee within this week and coordinated the date, settling on this day. On the 23rd, a ruling is scheduled for the Constitutional Court's authority dispute case related to the 'Complete Removal of Prosecutorial Investigation Rights (Geomsu Wanbak)' law, and on the following day, the 24th, Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok is scheduled to visit the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office, which appears to have been taken into consideration.
The prosecution is expected to indict Lee applying the charges cited when requesting an arrest warrant last month. These include breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, bribery by a third party, violation of the Anti-Corruption Act, violation of the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act, and violation of the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds.
Lee has been under investigation for allegedly designing and promoting the Daejang-dong urban development project during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam in a way favorable to private developers, funneling 788.6 billion won in profits to the Daejang-dong group including Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, and causing 489.5 billion won in losses to Seongnam City.
In the Wirye New Town development project, he is accused of providing inside information to private developers, resulting in an unfair gain of 21.1 billion won. Additionally, as the owner of Seongnam FC, he is accused of providing conveniences such as building permits and land use changes to four companies including Doosan Construction and Naver, in exchange for securing 13.35 billion won in sponsorship funds for Seongnam FC. This case was investigated by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Seongnam Branch and transferred to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.
However, the prosecution is known to have decided not to include charges related to the '428 billion won bribery agreement' suspicion (accepting bribes after wrongful acts) in the indictment and to continue investigating it.
This is because they judged that there is still insufficient physical evidence. The suspicion is that Lee promised to receive 42.8 billion won worth of shares in Cheonhadongin No. 1 through close aides as a reward for providing special favors to private developers in Daejang-dong.
Regarding this, the prosecution conducted intense investigations of Kim Man-bae and former Chief Political Coordinator of the Representative Office Jeong Jin-sang but failed to obtain related testimonies. The charge of receiving 847 million won from Nam Wook through Kim Yong, former deputy director of the Democratic Research Institute, as presidential primary election funds (violation of the Political Funds Act) is also expected to be excluded from this indictment.
Earlier, the prosecution requested an arrest warrant for Lee last month in connection with the Wirye and Daejang-dong development corruption and Seongnam FC illegal sponsorship cases, but it was automatically dismissed after the National Assembly rejected the consent for arrest.
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