'Underreporting Assets' Kim Hong-gul Fined 800,000 Won... Retains Parliamentary Seat

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Independent lawmaker Kim Hong-gul, who was indicted last year for underreporting his assets in the April 15 general election, has had his fine of 800,000 won finalized, allowing him to retain his parliamentary seat.

According to the legal community on the 24th, the prosecution did not file an appeal with the court by the deadline for appealing the first trial verdict, which was the previous day. If a fine of 1 million won or more is finalized for violating the Public Official Election Act, the election of the lawmaker is invalidated, but since Kim’s finalized fine was lower than that, he retains his seat.

Kim, the third son of former President Kim Dae-jung, was indicted for violating the Public Official Election Act by underreporting a commercial property in Daehyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, held under his spouse’s name, which was valued at around 1.2 billion won but reported as 192 million won, and by omitting a rental deposit of 710 million won for an apartment in Ilwon-dong, Gangnam-gu, during the asset disclosure before the general election. Subsequently, Kim was expelled from the Democratic Party. Kim’s side claimed that the underreporting was not intentional but a simple mistake by an employee and that it did not affect the election outcome, but this was not accepted.

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