On the 10th, the government discovered multiple allegations of misconduct involving eight individuals, including Lee Ki-heung, the president of the Korea Sports Council, as well as executives and staff, and decided to request a police investigation.
The Government Joint Public Service Inspection Team of the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced the findings of misconduct allegations such as irregular hiring of Sports Council employees (obstruction of business), demands for sponsorship goods (receipt of money or valuables), private use of sponsored goods (embezzlement), and budget waste (breach of trust).
President Lee was investigated for improperly hiring Mr. A, a university friend of his child, as an employee at the National Training Center for Athletes located in Jincheon, Chungbuk.
It was revealed that President Lee handed over resumes to senior officials at the training center and repeatedly instructed them to relax qualification requirements such as national team experience and Level 2 professional sports instructor certification.
President Lee ignored internal reports stating that lowering the salary would be necessary if qualification requirements were relaxed, and even replaced the head of the hiring department who opposed the relaxation of requirements.
Ultimately, the recruitment announcement was made with relaxed requirements, and Mr. A was finally hired.
Additionally, the inspection team secured testimony that, with President Lee’s approval, President B of a certain sports organization was made to cover the costs of health supplements and sportswear purchases intended for athletes.
According to related testimony, President B has a long-standing friendship with President Lee and expressed his desire to hold a key position related to the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
President B was indeed assigned the desired position and was found to have covered approximately 80 million KRW in purchase costs.
President Lee is also accused of allocating marketing revenue goods to his office without recording them in distribution ledgers, providing them to acquaintances, or unilaterally bringing sponsored goods assigned to other departments to his office for private use.
Furthermore, he recommended including five acquaintances unrelated to the sports community in the 98-member Paris Olympics observation team and provided them with special privileges such as sightseeing, which were not part of the original plan.
The observation team officials pre-purchased 405 tickets (worth 187 million KRW) and failed to refund 75 tickets (32.15 million KRW) that were no longer needed, revealing improper budget management and waste within the Sports Council through this inspection.
A senior official at the training center is accused of directly contacting sponsors to receive bedding sets worth 47.05 million KRW and storing them separately at the training center for discretionary use.
Moreover, the inspection team decided to notify the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the relevant authority, to take legal action against 11 individuals (including those subject to investigation and seven overlapping persons) for violations such as President Lee’s inappropriate language and improper execution of business promotion expenses.
President Lee has habitually used abusive and offensive language toward Sports Council employees and was also found to have conducted local schedules with low urgency to avoid appearing as a witness at the National Assembly audit.
The inspection team reported multiple issues in the Sports Council’s operations, including budget waste due to sudden changes in the venue for the Paris Olympics team disbandment ceremony, use of business promotion expense cards for work outside the workplace without proper approval, and advance payment of business promotion expenses through falsified supporting documents.
The inspection team also pointed out difficulties caused by some Sports Council executives’ non-cooperation and obstruction, highlighting President Lee’s avoidance of face-to-face investigation, unauthorized removal of work PCs’ hard disks, hospital admission and unauthorized leave, and refusal to submit materials.
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