Kim Bong-hyun Denies Reports of Lobbying Powerful Regime Figures... "Prosecutor's Pretrial Detention Is Unfair"

Former Chairman Kim Bong-hyun of Star Mobility. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Kim Bong-hyun, former chairman of Star Mobility (46), has strongly denied the Chosun Ilbo report suggesting that he lobbied influential figures in the current administration to help his accomplices.

He claimed that the text message contents introduced in the report, including terms like ‘Minjeong’ and ‘Yoon Chief Inspector,’ were all fabrications he made up.

In a statement released through his lawyer on the 18th, Kim said, “The person identified as Lee in the text messages released by Chosun Ilbo early this morning is the same individual as the one in the text messages reported by Chosun Ilbo a few days ago with the same intent. As I wrote in my prison statement dated October 21, his great uncle was a former Hannara Party lawmaker, and his father was a close aide to a former opposition party leader. He was sentenced to a heavy prison term in China for drug-related charges but was released due to his great uncle’s lobbying. He took about 2 billion won from me under the pretext of stock investment and misappropriated it for gambling before disappearing,” he revealed.

He continued, “Lee is also one of the stock manipulation forces behind Deutsche Motors. According to my close aides, he manages the bank account of the mother-in-law of Chief Prosecutor Yoon, has been staying in Southeast Asia continuously, and returned temporarily a few months ago to undergo a prosecution investigation.”

Kim stated, “It is questionable how Lee provided the text messages to Chosun Ilbo. At the time of exchanging these messages, Lee was my accomplice and was holding Kim, who was released on bail last week, as a hostage while leading the Macau escape incident. To prevent Lee from recklessly harming Kim, I boasted and pressured him by mentioning Minjeong, Jeongmu, and Chief Inspector Yoon?people I neither knew nor had any connection with?to make sure Lee would safely rescue Kim without any foolish ideas.”

He added, “For these reasons, the mentions of Minjeong, Jeongmu, and Chief Inspector Yoon in the text messages were merely for show, and the claim that I lobbied current administration figures as suggested by the Chosun Ilbo report is completely unfounded. I also provided detailed testimony about the text messages related to the Chosun Ilbo report during a prosecution investigation six months ago.”

On the same day, Chosun Ilbo released text messages exchanged between former chairman Kim and an acquaintance, reporting that they contained evidence of “Kim lobbying current administration figures to get his embezzlement accomplice detained at Macau airport released.”

The text messages disclosed by Chosun Ilbo included the phrase, “I asked Minjeong, and Chief Inspector Yoon told the consular officer in charge of the case everything.”

Former chairman Kim also denied the Asia Today report on the same day that he attempted an extreme act in detention a month before publicly releasing a prison letter on the 15th of last month.

He said, “Asia Today made an exclusive report suggesting that I attempted suicide, which is also untrue. Recently, an Asia Today reporter contacted my lawyer regarding this matter, and I told them that it was baseless and that there was no need to respond to such absurd inquiries.”

Meanwhile, Kim revealed that he signed an additional arrest warrant from the prosecution on the day of his detention expiration and claimed that the prosecution’s continued detention was unjust. He recently applied to the court for bail under electronic monitoring conditions.

He stated, “Regarding the recent issuance of an additional arrest warrant against me, the prosecution submitted a petition to the court requesting the warrant, citing the possibility of additional charges based on my prison statements. The prosecutor who wrote the November 3 petition is the same prosecutor who has been investigating me for the past six months alongside Prosecutor A, whom I identified as the person involved in the drinking party. This prosecutor attends my trials daily and submits opinions to the court. I believe this is contradictory and unfair.”

He expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “If there is a possibility of additional charges due to my prison statements, are they telling me to speak more or to remain silent?”

Finally, he pointed out that a significant portion of the damages has already been repaid and said, “Over the past six months, instead of investigating economic crimes, the prosecution has focused solely on political investigations related to passport politicians or so-called power gate scandals, and even failed to indict. Now, they are requesting additional detention, claiming it is necessary, which I believe is close to illegal detention that disregards the purpose of the detention system.” He argued the unfairness of the additional arrest warrant request.

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