"Democratic Party Money Envelope Allegations" Former Lawmaker Lee Seongman Acquitted Final Verdict

Admissibility of Former Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jeonggeun's Transcripts Rejected

The Supreme Court has finalized the not-guilty verdict for former independent lawmaker Lee Seongman, who had been brought to trial over allegations of receiving money envelopes related to the Democratic Party of Korea.

On August 30, 2024, former lawmaker Lee Seongman, who was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, at the first-instance sentencing hearing in the Democratic Party of Korea convention "cash envelope scandal", is leaving the courtroom. Photo by Heo Younghan

On February 12, the Third Division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Justice Lee Sookyeon) dismissed the prosecution's appeal and upheld the lower court's ruling in the case of former lawmaker Lee, who had been indicted on charges of violating the Political Funds Act and the Political Parties Act. Following the appellate court, the Supreme Court also refused to recognize the admissibility of the audio recordings retrieved from the mobile phone of former Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Lee Jeonggeun.

Former lawmaker Lee was accused of receiving 3 million won from former independent lawmaker Yoon Kwansuk at a support gathering for former Democratic Party leader Song Younggil (currently leader of the Pine Tree Party) on April 28, 2021.

He also faced charges of providing a total of 11 million won in March of the same year, including 1 million won and 10 million won, respectively, to former Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Lee Jeonggeun and former Korea Water Resources Corporation standing auditor Kang Raegu.

The court of first instance found him guilty. In August 2024, the court recognized the charges, including receiving money envelopes and providing off-the-books campaign funds, and sentenced him to nine months in prison, suspended for two years.

The appellate court reversed this and acquitted him. The appellate court ruled that the so-called "Lee Jeonggeun transcripts" submitted by the prosecution were "illegally collected evidence" obtained in a manner unrelated to the case.

Previously, in 2022, while investigating former deputy secretary-general Lee on charges of bribery for influence-peddling over allegations that she had received more than 1 billion won by soliciting various favors, prosecutors obtained her mobile phone through voluntary submission and secured about 30,000 audio recordings.

It is known that prosecutors launched the investigation based on content related to money envelopes at the 2021 Democratic Party of Korea party convention contained in those recordings. On this point, both the appellate court and the Supreme Court held that the evidence should be excluded, reasoning, among other things, that former deputy secretary-general Lee could not be deemed to have expressed an intention to submit all the evidence, including that related to this case, which was unrelated to the influence-peddling case.