Police Seek Arrest Warrant for Yang Bu-nam, Democratic Party Legal Committee Chair, Over Alleged High Legal Fees

The police have requested an arrest warrant for Yang Bu-nam, the chairman of the Democratic Party's Legal Committee (former Busan High Prosecutors' Office chief prosecutor), who is suspected of receiving a large legal fee on the condition of suppressing an investigation.

According to the police on the 30th, the Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency applied for an arrest warrant for Chairman Yang, who is suspected of violating the Attorney-at-Law Act. Chairman Yang is accused of receiving a large legal fee in November 2020, shortly after retiring from the prosecution, in exchange for suppressing an investigation into the operation of an online gambling site in Daegu.

The police summoned Chairman Yang as a suspect at the end of last month and on the 10th of this month to investigate whether he received a request to suppress the investigation. During the second investigation, a confrontation interrogation was also conducted with the office manager of lawyer A, who is facing the same charges. Lawyer A initially took on the case, and Chairman Yang also accepted it through them. While the office manager claimed that suppressing the investigation was one of the conditions for accepting the case, Chairman Yang reportedly denied the charges. The police also applied for an arrest warrant for lawyer A’s office manager on the same day.

The police have booked three individuals, Chairman Yang, lawyer A, and his office manager, on charges of violating the Attorney-at-Law Act and conducted a search and seizure of Chairman Yang’s law office in Seo-gu, Gwangju, in March.

By tracking accounts around Chairman Yang, the police confirmed that out of the total legal fees of 280 million won, about 99 million won flowed into the corporate account of Chairman Yang’s office.

In January, Chairman Yang explained in a statement, "After drafting a legal service contract, I took on the case of opening a gambling space, and the agreed legal fee of 90 million won was fully received into the corporate account and properly reported for tax purposes."