Prosecutors Freeze Assets of Kim Man-bae's Associates Involved in 39 Billion Won Concealment

The assets of an associate and family members of Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, who is accused of participating in concealing 39 billion KRW in profits from the Daejang-dong development, have been frozen.

Kim Man-bae [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 8th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) filed a petition for seizure preservation against four accomplices involved in concealing criminal proceeds, including Lee Seong-moon, co-CEO of Hwacheon Daeyu, director Choi Woo-hyang, Kim's wife Kim Mo, and former savings bank executive Yoo Mo, and received approval on the 2nd. The frozen assets, including their deposits and bonds, amount to approximately 2.5 billion KRW.

Seizure preservation is a procedure that freezes suspected criminal proceeds to prevent the defendant from arbitrarily disposing of them until a guilty verdict is confirmed.

They are accused of hiding about 36 billion KRW in criminal proceeds related to the Daejang-dong project from November 2021 to December 2022 by splitting the amount into small checks, storing them in officetels contracted under borrowed names, or transferring them to third-party accounts (violation of the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds).

Yoo, who knowingly received 280 million KRW from Kim, which was part of the Daejang-dong development profits, also had his assets frozen on the same charges.

The prosecution believes that among the criminal proceeds concealed by Kim, Lee hid 29 billion KRW, Choi 9.5 billion KRW, and Kim's wife about 4.02 billion KRW, and indicted 10 accomplices including them in April.