Husband Lawyer Lee Jong-geun Left Prosecution Last Year to Start Private Practice
Former Special Prosecutor on Multi-Level Marketing Investigations... "Unrelated to Wife, All Resigned"
The couple of Park Eun-jung, the number one proportional representation candidate of the Joseon Innovation Party, reportedly saw their assets increase by about 4.1 billion KRW over the past year. It is known that Park’s spouse, former prosecutor Lee Jong-geun, took on high-paying legal cases as a lawyer after retiring last year, including representing the multi-level marketing company Huestem Korea.
According to the Central Election Management Committee on the 28th, Park reported assets totaling 4.982 billion KRW when registering as a candidate for the April 10 general election, including her own assets of 1.048 billion KRW, her spouse’s assets of 3.916 billion KRW, and those of their two sons.
Park Eun-jung, former Ministry of Justice Inspection Officer, who received the number 1 proportional representation candidate from the Party for National Innovation, and Cho Guk, the party leader who received number 2, are whispering to each other while attending the Daejeon City Party founding event held in Daejeon on the 24th. [Photo by Yonhap News]
However, according to the last high-ranking public official asset declaration filed by Lee in May after retiring from the Judicial Research and Training Institute as a research fellow in February last year, the couple’s total assets were only 875 million KRW at that time. This means their assets increased by about 4.1 billion KRW within one year after Lee’s retirement.
In particular, comparing Lee’s deposit amount declared in May last year with Park’s recent declaration, Lee’s bank deposits increased from 21 million KRW last year to 3.268 billion KRW this month.
During this period, Lee is reported to have represented the CEO of Huestem Korea, a company accused of embezzling membership fees worth over 1 trillion KRW from about 100,000 people through a multi-level marketing-like organization. The management and corporation of Huestem Korea were indicted in January for allegedly recruiting investors under the pretense of trading agricultural and marine products and then embezzling the investment funds.
Lee was also appointed as the defense attorney for the company in the 'Ado International fraud case,' which involves allegations of a 400 billion KRW-scale illegal fundraising scheme.
During his time as a prosecutor, Lee served as the head of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office, chief of the Criminal Affairs Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, and first deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office. He specialized in investigating illegal multi-level marketing and was certified as a Black Belt (Level 1) professional prosecutor in the multi-level marketing and illegal fundraising fields.
Regarding the increase in his spouse’s assets, Park posted on Facebook explaining, “The declared assets include the spouse’s retirement pay and lump-sum civil servant pension, lease deposit, inherited real estate, and the spouse’s legal practice revenue.”
Park stated, “My spouse took on about 15 cases per month on average, with a total of about 160 cases as of the asset declaration date, and plans to pay up to 49.5% of the taxable amount as taxes this May.”
Addressing political criticism of “preferential treatment for former officials,” she said, “When they attacked me as a ‘pro-Moon prosecutor,’ why are they now talking about preferential treatment for former officials? Do you think a pro-Moon prosecutor could receive preferential treatment under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration?” She added, “Please judge this matter with common sense.”
Lee also posted directly on his wife’s Facebook, stating, “I will resign from all controversial cases.”
He emphasized, “If people who pursue reform must unconditionally live a life of frugality and neglect family affairs (Cheongbin Bulgosa), then I will also keep silent. However, my legal cases are unrelated to my spouse.”
Park was dismissed from the prosecution in February amid allegations that she was involved in the so-called “targeted inspection” process when President Yoon Seok-yeol was Prosecutor General.
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