Prosecutors Conduct National Tax Service Search Related to Allegations Against Yoon Seok-yeol's Close Associate's Elder Brother

Seoul Seocho-dong Supreme Prosecutors' Office (left) and Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office view./Photo by Kim Hyun-min

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Following the investigation directive from Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, the prosecution, currently investigating allegations of a cover-up in the bribery case involving Yoon Dae-jin, the deputy director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute (prosecutor general) and known as a close aide to Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, recently conducted a raid on the National Tax Service (NTS) headquarters.

According to legal circles on the 18th, the Criminal Division 13 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Seo Jeong-min) presented a court-issued search warrant on the 13th to the IT department of the NTS headquarters in Sejong City and obtained electronic data related to the case involving Yoon Woo-jin, the elder brother of Prosecutor General Yoon and former head of the Yongsan Tax Office.

Yoon, the former tax office chief, was under police investigation in 2013 on suspicion of accepting bribes from meat importers and others. He was arrested overseas and forcibly repatriated but was later cleared of charges by the prosecution.

At that time, the police applied six times for search warrants on the golf course where Yoon and the meat businessmen played golf together, but all were dismissed by the prosecution.

During this process, controversy arose over allegations that Yoon Seok-yeol, then head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department 1, introduced lawyer Lee Nam-seok, a former member of the Central Investigation Department, to Yoon Woo-jin.

Recently, Minister Choo issued an investigation directive excluding Prosecutor General Yoon from the investigative command regarding this case.

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