Three Reviewers of LH Apartment Supervision Bid Bribery Detained (Comprehensive)

Three review committee members accused of accepting bribes during the selection process of construction supervision companies for projects commissioned by Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) have been arrested.

On the 8th, Judge Kim Seok-beom, in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, held a pre-arrest suspect hearing and issued arrest warrants for public official Park and private university professors Jung and Park. Judge Kim stated the reason for issuing the warrants was "the risk of flight."

The three arrested individuals are accused of accepting 50 million won each in bribes (bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes) after receiving requests from representatives and executives of companies participating in a bid around March 2022 to give high scores in the evaluation and assign the lowest scores, called "bombs," to competing companies.

An arrest warrant was also requested for quasi-governmental agency employee Lee, who is accused of bribery under the Criminal Act, but the court dismissed it. Lee is suspected of receiving 20 million won around January 2020 from an employee of another bidding company under a similar request.

Judge Kim explained the dismissal reason for Lee, stating, "He has a fixed residence, and it is difficult to see any risk of flight or evidence destruction." The prosecution plans to verify specific facts with the three arrested individuals and analyze the reasons for the dismissal regarding Lee to review future investigation directions.

Since August last year, the prosecution has been investigating allegations of collusion worth hundreds of billions of won in the bidding for supervision services of apartment construction projects, including Happy Housing districts commissioned by LH and the Public Procurement Service. During this process, they detected circumstances where about ten review committee members involved in the evaluation received money and valuables from companies and conducted investigations.