An arrest warrant for businessman Kim Mo (52), who is accused of receiving money as a broker along with former Korea Housing Technology CEO Kim In-seop during the Baekhyeon-dong development project and committing perjury in the trial concerning Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, was dismissed by the court on the 27th.
Yoon Jae-nam, the chief judge in charge of the warrant review at the Seoul Central District Court, dismissed the arrest warrant requested by the prosecution for Kim in the afternoon, stating, "Considering the need to guarantee the suspect's right to defense, the fact that objective evidence seems to have been secured to some extent through search and seizure, and that the actual residence has been identified, at this stage, the reasons and necessity for detention are somewhat insufficient."
A close associate of Kim In-seop, former CEO of Korea Housing Technology, who acted as a lobbyist for Seongnam City in connection with the 'Baekhyeon-dong Development Corruption Allegations,' is attending the warrant hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court on the 27th.
Earlier, on the 23rd, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) requested a pre-arrest warrant for Kim on two counts of bribery under the Specific Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act and perjury.
Kim, a close associate of CEO Kim, worked as the secretary to former Seongnam Mayor Kim Byung-ryang from July 1998 to June 2002. Afterwards, he served as the CEO of a real estate consulting company in Yongin.
The prosecution applied three charges against Kim, including receiving money from Jung Ba-ul, CEO of Asia Developer, as a bribe for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project together with CEO Kim (bribery under the Specific Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act), committing perjury as a witness at Lee’s trial for violating the election law at Lee’s request while assisting former party office political coordination chief Jung Jin-sang, and then receiving money from a company after arranging deliveries to Seongnam City and others through Jung.
The prosecution stated in the warrant application that Kim, along with CEO Kim, boasted of a close relationship with former party office political coordination chief Jung, who was effectively the second-in-command at Seongnam City Hall under then-Mayor Lee Jae-myung in November 2013, and claimed they could influence Seongnam City Hall. They promised Jung that if he resolved various permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong project, he would receive shares entitling him to huge dividends upon the project's success. Later, they agreed to receive 7 billion KRW in cash instead of shares and actually received 3.5 billion KRW.
Additionally, the prosecution applied the perjury charge, stating that while assisting Jung’s Baekhyeon-dong development project, Kim was repeatedly asked by Lee in December 2018 via phone calls to testify that "there was a discussion or atmosphere to withdraw a complaint against Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit between Kim Byung-ryang and KBS during the prosecutor impersonation incident." Kim appeared as a witness at Lee’s trial for violating the Public Official Election Act held at Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch on February 14, 2019, and gave testimony contrary to his memory as requested by Lee.
The trial in question was related to Lee’s statements on May 29, 2018, during the "2018 Gyeonggi Province Governor Candidate KBS Invitation Debate" where Lee was indicted for saying, in response to a competing candidate’s question about impersonating a prosecutor, "I did not do it; the PD impersonated, and I was just being interviewed nearby, so I was falsely accused of helping," and "I never impersonated a prosecutor. I was falsely accused of helping because I was being interviewed next to the PD who did it." At that time, the prosecution judged that Lee’s statements were false information disclosure because he had been convicted and criminally punished for conspiring with KBS 'Chase 60 Minutes' producer Choi Cheol-ho regarding the prosecutor impersonation.
Finally, the prosecution applied another bribery charge under the Specific Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act, stating that Kim agreed to receive 30% of the sales amount as a commission for facilitating public institution deliveries of eavesdropping detection systems and other products from wireless communication equipment manufacturer G Company. After perjuring himself on February 14, 2019, at Lee’s request, Kim asked former party office political coordination chief Jung in March 2019 to help deliver G Company’s eavesdropping detection systems to Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Provincial Council, receiving about 71 million KRW from G Company as a bribe.
With the dismissal of Kim’s arrest warrant, it is expected that the prosecution’s investigation plan, which anticipated immediately securing the custody of CEO Kim In-seop and others following Kim’s arrest, will face some setbacks.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
