Investigation Launched at Board of Audit Request into Construction Favoritism for Former Presidents Moon and Park's Residences
About ten days after Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok ordered a swift and thorough investigation into the allegations regarding First Lady Kim Geon-hee's expensive handbags, a high-ranking personnel reshuffle in the prosecution was carried out. There is speculation that a mid-level personnel reshuffle in the prosecution may take place as early as this week. The photo was taken on the 20th at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
An executive of the Security Office and a broker were arrested by the prosecution on charges of inflating construction costs and making false contracts to pocket money during the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan.
According to the legal community on the 13th, the Violent Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Boseong) requested arrest warrants for Security Office executive Jeong Mo and construction broker Kim Mo, which were issued by the court the previous day. Jeong faces charges including bribery involving a third party, bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, fraud, and extortion, while Kim faces charges including fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.
According to the prosecution, Jeong is accused of awarding construction projects related to former President Moon Jae-in’s Yangsan residence, former President Park Geun-hye’s Daegu residence, and the Security Office’s relocation to the presidential office in Yongsan to Kim, with whom he had a close relationship, between August 2021 and March 2023. During this process, Jeong is alleged to have embezzled 100 million won and extorted 180 million won in construction payments.
Jeong is also charged with receiving 70 million won in bribes and promising 16 million won in bribes from construction contractor Kim Mo. Broker Kim is accused of, from April to July 2022, being selected as the project manager for the bulletproof window construction of the presidential office relocation through Jeong, and then embezzling 1.57 billion won by submitting an estimate inflated more than five times the actual total cost during the private contract process with a private construction company he introduced.
According to the Board of Audit and Inspection’s audit results, of the total project cost of approximately 2.04 billion won for the bulletproof window installation, the actual cost for bulletproof glass, window frames, film production, and installation was only about 470 million won.
Earlier, the Board of Audit and Inspection detected signs that the company awarded the private contract for bulletproof glass installation during the presidential office relocation submitted inflated estimates, and in October last year, requested an investigation by the prosecution. On this day, the audit report disclosed the investigation details regarding the corruption of Jeong and Kim.
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