Eight Including Incumbent Local Councilor in Incheon Booked for 'New Town Speculation' Allegations

Suspected Violations of the Farmland Act... 25 Land Traders Also Under Investigation

Perspective view of the 3rd New Town Incheon Gyeyang (Provided by: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Eight people, including a current local council member, have been booked by the police over speculation allegations in new towns such as Incheon and Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency's Special Investigation Unit for Real Estate Speculation announced on the 22nd that it has booked eight people, including a current local council member A, on charges such as violating the Farmland Act.

A and others are suspected of falsely proving farmland acquisition qualifications when purchasing land within regional development project sites since 2015. The police are also conducting preliminary investigations on 25 land traders in new town target areas.

Previously, the police independently collected intelligence on 33 people related to nine cases involving real estate speculation suspects and have been conducting preliminary investigations or investigations. Among them, 31 people are related to Gyeyang Technovalley in Gyeyang-gu, Incheon, designated as a 3rd phase new town in 2018, and the Daejang district in Bucheon.

The police plan to investigate not only violations of the Farmland Act but also suspicions of transactions using undisclosed information or nominee transactions.

The police explained that currently, no employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) or public officials belonging to local governments are included among those booked. However, the number of booked individuals may increase depending on the progress of future investigations and preliminary inquiries.

The police are conducting an almost full-scale investigation of land transactions in three areas around Incheon and Bucheon, including the planned site of the Gyeyang Technovalley project since 2015, to find suspected speculators.

They are intensively analyzing land transactions involving about 560 buyers and sellers in this area alone, including traders suspected of purchasing large amounts of land before the announcement of the 3rd phase new towns or buying and selling land using nominee accounts.

The police will first investigate two 3rd phase new towns, Gyeyang in Incheon and Daejang in Bucheon, and then examine the public housing district around Geomam Station in Incheon and surrounding areas of the 3rd phase new towns.

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