Seongnam City Seizes 567.3 Billion Won in Daejang-dong Assets, Vows Full Recovery Including Abandoned Proceeds

Seongnam City Targets Full Recovery of Daejang-dong Losses
567.3 Billion Won in Assets Seized, Including 420 Billion from Kim Man-bae
Claim for 112.8 Billion Won in First Trial Damages Also Pursued

Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor: Shin Sang-jin) announced on December 2 that it had filed a court application for provisional seizure of assets worth 567.3 billion won held by those involved in the Daejang-dong development corruption case. This measure is a preemptive response aimed at preventing these assets from being arbitrarily disposed of or concealed during the trial process, thereby enabling the city to effectively recover citizens’ losses in the event of a final court victory.

Seongnam City Hall exterior. Provided by Seongnam City

The city had previously attempted to appoint multiple law firms as legal representatives but faced difficulties. Concluding that waiting for legal representation could make it impossible to recover criminal proceeds, the city decided to utilize its own resources and filed for provisional seizure on December 1, independent of the appointment of outside counsel.

The total amount targeted is 567.3 billion won, including assets held by Kim Man-bae (420 billion won), Nam Wook (82 billion won), Jeong Young-hak (64.69 billion won), and Yoo Dong-gyu (675 million won). The application covers a wide range of criminal proceeds, including deposit claims, real estate, trust beneficiary rights, and compensation claims, with the intention of freezing all assets accumulated through the Daejang-dong corruption scheme.

Notably, this provisional seizure targets the entirety of the Daejang-dong group’s criminal proceeds that the state (the prosecution) had abandoned-such as 405.4 billion won in land parcel sales dividends, 369 billion won in apartment and other sales profits, and 14 billion won in asset management fees-exceeding the 544.6 billion won previously preserved by the prosecution.

Seongnam City stated that, even if the prosecution has abandoned its appeal and national-level confiscation becomes difficult, the city will continue to pursue and freeze all assets of the Daejang-dong group through civil procedures, actively including them in the list for provisional seizure.

Additionally, the city is separately pursuing a “claim for the return of crime victim assets” in accordance with the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Confiscation and Return of Property Acquired through Corrupt Practices. On November 28, the city filed a claim with the prosecution for the full amount of 112.8 billion won, which the court in the first trial recognized as damages suffered by Seongnam Urban Development Corporation.

A “return claim” is a procedure in which a person who has suffered property damage due to corruption requests the state to return criminal proceeds, which have been recognized in court as subject to confiscation or collection, to the actual victim.

Seongnam City explained that, by pursuing both civil lawsuits for damages and criminal procedures for the return of criminal proceeds, it is diversifying the avenues for recovering citizens’ losses.

The city emphasized that these actions-provisional seizure and the return claim-go beyond mere legal procedures, demonstrating a strong determination to fully recover the financial damages suffered by Seongnam City and its citizens due to the Daejang-dong corruption, and to never tolerate illicit gains acquired through crime.