Businessman Uses Over 100 Million KRW on Credit Cards
Uses Family Members' Nominee Accounts... Attempts Money Laundering Through Acquaintances
First Case Recognized by the Corruption Investigation Office... Two Arrest Warrants Rejected
The High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (HGOI) has sent a senior police official accused of accepting bribes worth around 700 million won to trial.
The HGOI Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Kim Seon-gyu) indicted Kim Mo, Police Superintendent (53, female), on the 16th without detention on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, violation of the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Crime Proceeds, violation of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, and violation of the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act.
Kim Mo, Police Commissioner, appeared at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul, on December 7 last year to attend the second warrant hearing.
Kim is accused of receiving bribes worth approximately 770 million won from Mr. A, the CEO of a clothing company whom she met through an acquaintance, over about four years from June 2020 to February last year by using Mr. A's credit card or receiving transfers to her brother's or acquaintances' accounts.
She is alleged to have accepted money and valuables in exchange for facilitating police officers in charge of business and criminal cases at Mr. A's request.
According to the HGOI, Kim received large sums transferred through an account under her brother Mr. B's name. While she admitted to using Mr. A's credit card, she denied receiving bribes through the account under her brother's name. However, the HGOI confirmed through nine rounds of account tracking and analysis of transaction details, IP addresses, and MAC addresses that the account under Mr. B's name was a proxy account of Kim.
It was also confirmed that Kim employed money laundering methods using accounts under the name of acquaintance Mr. C during the process of receiving bribes through the account under Mr. B's name. The HGOI reported that the amount spent using Mr. A's credit card by Kim exceeded 100 million won.
On the same day, the HGOI indicted Mr. A without detention on charges of bribery for giving bribes to Kim, and indicted Mr. B and Mr. C without detention on charges of aiding and abetting violations of the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Crime Proceeds and the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (bribery) related to Mr. A's crimes.
The HGOI stated, "Based on forensic analysis of mobile phone messages between Kim and Mr. A and testimonies from related parties, it was proven that there was an agreement to facilitate business and investigative conveniences related to Mr. A's illegal funeral business promotion."
Meanwhile, to recover criminal proceeds, the HGOI filed a pre-indictment seizure preservation request with the Seoul Central District Court for assets worth about 700 million won belonging to Kim, which was approved by the court on the 9th.
The HGOI began a full-scale investigation into Mr. A last year in February by raiding his office within the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
At that time, the investigation targeted allegations that Chairman Lee Sang-young of Daewoo Industrial Development had bribed police to halt investigations, but during the process, additional evidence was found that Kim had also received bribes from Mr. A, leading to a raid on Kim's residence and other locations in July of the same year.
Kim filed a quasi-appeal to cancel the search and seizure order immediately after the raid, but the court dismissed Mr. A's quasi-appeal in January this year, ruling that it could not be considered an illegal separate investigation.
This case is the first investigation initiated by the HGOI since its launch in January 2021 without any complaints or accusations.
During the investigation, the HGOI requested arrest warrants for Kim twice in August and December last year, but both were rejected by the court.
Kim is known as a graduate of the Korean National Police University and has held various key positions within the police force.
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