First Court Ruling on Donbongtu Incident... Impact on Song Young-gil Trial and Investigation of Receiving Lawmakers
The first trial verdict for independent lawmaker Yoon Kwan-seok, who was indicted and detained over the Democratic Party’s ‘party convention money envelope suspicion,’ will be announced on the 31st. The outcome of the first trial for Yoon and others is expected to have a significant impact on future prosecution investigations. As this is the first court ruling related to the money envelope suspicion case, the verdict is anticipated to serve as a standard for judging the guilt or innocence of former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil, who is considered the main figure in the suspicion, and the lawmakers who received the money envelopes.
Independent lawmaker Yoon Kwan-seok is appearing at the Seoul Central District Court on August 4 last year for the substantive hearing of the arrest warrant as a key suspect in the "money envelope incident." Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 21-2 (Presiding Judges Kim Jeong-gon, Kim Mi-kyung, Heo Kyung-mu) plans to hold a sentencing hearing at 2 p.m. on the same day for lawmaker Yoon and former Korea Water Resources Corporation Standing Auditor Kang Rae-gu, who are charged with violations of the Political Parties Act and other offenses.
Previously, the prosecution requested the court to sentence lawmaker Yoon to five years in prison, and Kang to one year in prison for violating the Political Funds Act, and two years in prison plus a fine of 10 million won for other offenses.
Lawmaker Yoon was indicted and detained on charges of receiving a total of 60 million won from primary election camp officials to provide to incumbent Democratic Party lawmakers in order to support former leader Song Young-gil’s election ahead of the Democratic Party’s party convention in May 2021.
It was investigated that when concerns arose about former leader Song’s nationwide delegate support rate being overtaken between April 24 and 28 of that year, just before the election, Yoon proposed to Kang and former Democratic Party Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jeong-geun, among other primary camp officials, saying, "The rival candidate’s camp is distributing 3 million won to each lawmaker, so we should also give that amount to the lawmakers." The prosecution included this content in former leader Song’s indictment as well.
The prosecution believes that Park Yong-su, who served as a secretary to former leader Song, received 50 million won from a businessman named Kim, who was identified as a so-called ‘sponsor,’ and combined with camp funds, provided 60 million won to lawmaker Yoon in two installments.
During the trial, a recorded transcript suggesting that former leader Song was aware of the distribution of money envelopes within the party was also revealed. In the recording, Kang said during a phone call with former Deputy Secretary-General Lee on April 10, 2021, "I told Young-gil that Seong-man hyung connected me, and I distributed some money. When I said, ‘I greeted him with what Seong-man hyung prepared,’ he said, ‘Well done.’"
Based on this recording, the prosecution judged that Kang provided funds received from then-Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Seong-man to regional headquarters chiefs in March 2021 and reported this to former leader Song.
Kang is accused of conspiring with lawmaker Yoon and others to distribute 94 million won in money and goods to lawmakers, primary camp regional headquarters chiefs, and regional situation room chiefs.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
