'Land Speculation Allegations' Gyeonggi Siheung City Council Member and Pocheon Public Official Reported to National Police Agency

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] A member of the Gyeonggi Siheung City Council and a Pocheon City official, suspected of speculation on new towns and planned railway station sites, have been reported to the police.

The Association of Judicial Exam Preparers (Sajunmo) announced on the 7th that it reported a Gyeonggi Siheung City council member, his daughter, and a senior official of Pocheon City to the National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters (Guksubon) on charges including violation of the Special Act on Public Housing and misuse of official secrets under the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Act.

In the complaint submitted the previous day, Sajunmo stated, "Council member A of Siheung City Council, affiliated with the Democratic Party of Korea, is presumed to have conspired with his 30-year-old daughter to purchase land in the Siheung Gwarim-dong area, a planned development site for the 3rd new town, and to build commercial buildings to gain speculative profits."

Regarding the senior official of Pocheon City, it was claimed, "Around September last year, he purchased approximately 2,600㎡ of land near the planned urban railway station site together with his spouse for 4 billion KRW, and subsequently, the introduction of a metropolitan railway station near this real estate was decided."

The government has formed a joint investigation team involving the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, National Police Agency, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon City to conduct a full investigation into speculation allegations related to the 3rd new town by LH employees and others. The Board of Audit and Inspection, which received a public interest audit request from People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun), is also reviewing whether to conduct an audit.

The investigation related to these allegations is being overseen by the National Investigation Headquarters. The National Investigation Headquarters has formed a "Special Investigation Unit for Real Estate Speculation Offenders" and designated the "LH Corporation executives speculation allegations" case, currently under investigation by the Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, as a case under its concentrated command, taking charge of the entire investigation process.

Each provincial police agency’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit will organize dedicated investigation teams to strengthen crackdowns on ▲ misuse of internal information by public officials, ▲ illegal acquisition of real estate such as through name lending and violations of the Farmland Act, and ▲ organized and corporate-style illegal transactions related to real estate speculation.

The Special Investigation Unit is composed of the head of the National Investigation Headquarters’ Investigation Bureau as the leader, along with the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division, Major Crime Investigation Division, Crime Intelligence Division, and the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Units of the three provincial police agencies with jurisdiction over the 3rd new town sites: Southern Gyeonggi, Northern Gyeonggi, and Incheon.

Earlier, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) held a press conference raising suspicions that LH employees had pre-purchased about 7,000 pyeong (approximately 23,100㎡) of land in the newly announced public housing sites of Gwangmyeong and Siheung new towns last month for about 10 billion KRW.

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