Police Also Investigate Allegations of Speculation in Gyeyang Technovalley... Including Geomam Station Area and Bucheon Daejang

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The police investigating allegations of speculation by employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) in planned new town areas have also begun an internal investigation into land transactions in the 3rd new town areas of Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon.

According to the police on the 10th, the Metropolitan Investigation Unit of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency is analyzing land transaction records in the Gyeyang Technovalley project site, designated as a 3rd new town in December 2018.

This case is being handled by the Anti-Corruption Economic Investigation Division of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency’s Metropolitan Investigation Unit, which is part of the government joint special investigation headquarters. The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency formed a special investigation team led by the head of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit. The investigation team also includes the Crime Proceeds Tracking Investigation Team and the Crime Information Analysis Team.

The police have identified 96 land transactions and 124 buyers in the Gyeyang Technovalley project area from 2015 to recently. In Gyeyang-gu, Incheon, pure land transaction volume suddenly increased by 2.5 times in November 2018, just before the new town announcement, raising suspicions that project information may have been leaked prior to the official announcement.

The police are also analyzing land transaction records in the nearby Bucheon Daejang District in Gyeonggi Province and the Incheon Geomam Station Public Housing District. The Bucheon Daejang District is being developed as part of the 3rd new town construction along with Gyeyang Technovalley. Although this area is not under the jurisdiction of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency, it was decided to investigate jointly with Incheon following a cooperation request from the Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency.

Based on land transaction status in these three areas since 2013, the police plan to verify real estate registry copies and track speculative transactions or transactions under false names using insider information.

Incheon City and Bucheon City are also conducting investigations to determine whether there have been speculative land transactions by public officials or employees of public enterprises in Gyeyang Technovalley and Bucheon Daejang District.

Gyeyang Technovalley, with a total project cost of 4.3219 trillion won, is a project to build a new town accommodating 17,000 households and 39,000 people in Gyeyang-gu’s Gyulhyeon-dong and Dongyang-dong by 2026. Bucheon Daejang District is planned to be developed as a self-sufficient city with 20,000 households, and the Geomam Station Public Housing District project promoted by Incheon Urban Corporation aims to supply 6,389 households on a 790,000㎡ site in Geomam-dong, Seo-gu, with an investment of about 700 billion won by next year.

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