People's Party on Lime and Optimus Alleged Ruling Party Involvement... "No Smoke Without Fire"

"When the People Harbor Doubts and Criticize... This Too Is the Government's Responsibility"

Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, is announcing the shared party platform and the 37th policy tasks for the national audit at the National Assembly on the 6th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] On the 14th, the People’s Party pointed out regarding the Lime and Optimus cases, in which ruling party figures are suspected to be involved, that “as the names of key figures in the administration are being mentioned, the suspicions are snowballing,” adding, “Where there is smoke, there must be fire.”

In a statement that day, Ahn Hye-jin, spokesperson for the People’s Party, said, “The smoke rising from the chimney clearly indicates that a fire was lit in the kitchen,” and added, “The ruling party should not try to blind the public with petty wordplay. If the people harbor suspicions and criticize, this too is the government’s responsibility.”

Spokesperson Ahn criticized, “The prosecution appears to be moving belatedly, only now conducting a search and seizure of the house of a former Financial Supervisory Service director who is suspected of receiving tens of millions of won in bribes in exchange for connecting Optimus Asset Management CEO Kim with financial figures including Hana Bank officials, and reinforcing the investigation team late in the process.”

Ahn said, “The ruling party has been defending itself daily through the media, claiming this case is merely a typical financial fraud incident caused by poor management that inflicted monetary damage on investors, and demanding an end to what they call malicious political attacks,” adding, “They assert that the documents serving as evidence are slanderous works by certain political prosecutors, malicious conservative media, and opposition parties.”

Ahn stated, “Optimus Asset Management, which caused the 500 billion won scale private equity fund redemption suspension, raised investment funds under the pretense of investing in public institution-issued government construction project receivables, but used the funds to acquire non-performing bonds, engage in fund recycling, and embezzled hundreds of billions of won,” and revealed, “Five public institutions including the Korea Communications Agency, Korea Rural Community Corporation, and NH Investment & Securities of NongHyup invested a total of 82.8 billion won, and while they easily gained investors’ favor by being inserted into major government construction projects of power subsidiaries, there was no supervision from the Financial Supervisory Service or the Financial Services Commission.”

Ahn added, “Despite the names of powerful figures being mentioned among the key suspects in the criminal case and evidence of multiple meetings, the prosecution’s investigation is sluggish,” and said, “Given the current times, with the separation of powers already broken under this administration, there is doubt whether those who committed fraud will face strict legal judgment, and there is great concern that society may deteriorate into one where nothing is impossible under the ruling party’s support.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.