Supreme Court Nominee Lee Suk-yeon: "Spouse's 'Lottery Business' 3 out of 4 Criminal Cases Not Prosecuted... Unfair Misunderstanding"

Supreme Court nominee Lee Suk-yeon addressed the case in which her spouse, a lottery business operator, was sued and accused by a bidder who lost the bid, stating on the 12th, "All four criminal cases involving the nominee's spouse were filed by the lottery business bid losers, and three of these cases have already been conclusively dismissed or resulted in non-prosecution," calling it an "unfair misunderstanding."

Lee Suk-yeon, Supreme Court Justice Nominee

Lee's side released an 'Explanation on Spouse's Criminal Cases' to the media on the same day, stating this. Regarding the remaining ongoing case, they added, "As a Supreme Court nominee, it is cautious to disclose specific positions, but the competent supervisory authority firmly holds that there was no illegal activity by Donghaeng Lottery."

Furthermore, they appealed, "The nominee's spouse was involved in the criminal cases only as the representative of Donghaeng Lottery, and has long suffered unfair misunderstandings and wounds due to repeated lawsuits and accusations by the losing bidder," adding, "We hope that unfair misunderstandings do not spread merely because the nominee's spouse was sued and accused."

The nominee's spouse, Cho Hyung-seop, is the co-CEO of Jeju Semiconductor and concurrently serves as the co-CEO of Donghaeng Lottery, a subsidiary of Jeju Semiconductor. According to Lee's side, when Donghaeng Lottery first won the lottery business license in 2018, the losing company maliciously filed lawsuits and accusations against CEO Cho.

Among the four criminal cases involving CEO Cho, the case concerning violation of the Lottery Act is currently under investigation by the Seocho Police Station. In May, the police forwarded the case to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment, but the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office requested supplementary investigation and sent it back. The police judged that CEO Cho's use of lottery information was established as a charge when, in September 2021, the visual winning results and the sales system winning results for six tickets of the 58th Spitto 1000 lottery did not match, leading to the recall of approximately 200,000 tickets presumed to be erroneous.

However, Lee's side stated, "The supervisory agency, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance's Lottery Commission, also sent official letters three times to the relevant police station, stating that this case does not constitute a violation of the Lottery Act and hoping that the accusation case is not abused as a means of retaliation due to bid failure."