Prosecution Seeks 6-Month Prison Sentence for Former Lawmaker Kim Nam-guk over False Asset Declaration

Charge of Obstruction of Official Duties through Abuse of Authority

The prosecution has requested a six-month prison sentence for former Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-guk, who was brought to trial on charges of falsely reporting his assets to the National Assembly in order to conceal large cryptocurrency (coin) earnings.

Yonhap News

On the morning of the 18th, at the Seoul Southern District Court before Judge Jeong Woo-yong of Criminal Division 9, the prosecution asked for a six-month prison sentence during the sentencing hearing for Kim’s charge of obstruction of official duties by deception.

The prosecution stated, "The defendant intended not to report the coins he held," and added, "He obstructed the National Assembly Public Officials Ethics Committee’s review of lawmakers’ assets by deception."

Kim was indicted on charges of obstructing the National Assembly Public Officials Ethics Committee’s review of asset changes by transferring part of his coin deposits to a bank deposit account during the asset reporting process to adjust the total declared assets, while converting the remaining deposits into coins, in order to hide the fact that he earned large profits from coin investments twice in 2021 and 2022.

The prosecution believes that during the 2021 asset reporting process, Kim concealed the fact that he held approximately 9.9 billion won in coin deposits and reported his total assets as about 1.2 billion won, and that in 2022, he similarly concealed about 990 million won using the same method.