Prosecutor's Office Arrest Warrant for Grade 3 Auditor at Board of Audit on Bribery Charges

The High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (HOCI) has requested an arrest warrant for a senior official of the Board of Audit and Inspection on charges of accepting a large bribe.

According to the legal community on the 7th, the second investigation division of HOCI (Chief Prosecutor Song Chang-jin) filed an arrest warrant request the day before for Kim, a Grade 3 official of the Board of Audit and Inspection, on charges of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.

Gwacheon Government Complex Corruption Investigation Office.

Kim, who mainly handled audits in the construction, social overhead capital (SOC), and facilities sectors at the Board of Audit and Inspection, is suspected of receiving bribes worth around 1 billion KRW by establishing a company under an acquaintance's name and securing construction contracts from construction companies.

Earlier, the Board of Audit and Inspection detected signs of Kim's misconduct and referred the case to HOCI for investigation in October 2021.

Kim has a disciplinary record of a three-month suspension after being caught during an internal audit for traveling to Southeast Asia with a construction company official during working hours.

In February last year, HOCI conducted a search and seizure at the Board of Audit and Inspection and secured internal audit materials related to Kim. On the 27th of last month and the 1st of this month, Kim was summoned twice as a suspect for investigation.

This is the fourth time since HOCI's establishment in January 2021 that it has requested an arrest warrant from the court. Previously, HOCI requested arrest warrants twice for Son Jun-sung, then Human Rights Protection Officer at Daegu High Prosecutors' Office (currently Chief Prosecutor), in connection with the 'accusation solicitation' suspicion, and once for Kim, a police superintendent affiliated with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, but all were dismissed.

The warrant hearing for Kim will be held starting the morning of the 8th, presided over by Judge Lee Min-su, the dedicated warrant judge of the Seoul Central District Court.