'Former Supreme Court Justice Kwon Soon-il, who declared Lee Jae-myung not guilty, becomes advisor for Hwacheon Daeyu in Daejang-dong after retirement'

Former Supreme Court Justice Kwon Soon-il / Photo by Jin-hyeong Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] It has been confirmed that Kwon Soon-il, a former Supreme Court justice (62), serves as an advisor to Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management (Hwacheon Daeyu), the asset management company of the Daejang-dong public development project in Seongnam City, which was promoted during Lee Jae-myung's tenure as mayor of Seongnam. Former Justice Kwon was the figure who expressed an opinion of acquittal in the Supreme Court plenary session ruling on Lee's charge of false statement under the Public Official Election Act.

According to the legal community on the 16th, former Justice Kwon is currently serving as an advisor to Hwacheon Daeyu. He joined the majority opinion when the Supreme Court plenary session overturned Lee's Public Official Election Act violation case with a verdict of acquittal on July 16 last year.

Previously, former special prosecutor Park Young-soo also served as an advisor to Hwacheon Daeyu. It has been confirmed that Park's daughter and Gwak Sang-do, a member of the People Power Party, also worked at Hwacheon Daeyu. All of them are said to have formed connections with Mr. A, the owner of Hwacheon Daeyu, who is a former executive of a media company and became acquainted during his time as a legal reporter. Hwacheon Daeyu claims that they only recruited former legal professionals as advisors for legal consultation purposes.

Regarding this, former Justice Kwon's side is known to have accepted the advisory position after receiving a proposal from Mr. A and reviewing whether it violated the Kim Young-ran Act. He also stated that he "knows nothing at all" about the recently raised 'special favor suspicions' related to the Daejang-dong development project.

The Daejang-dong urban development project involved developing 5,903 households on approximately 910,000 square meters of land in Daejang-dong, Seongnam City, with an investment of 1.15 trillion won. The project was carried out by the special purpose company (SPC) ‘Seongnam's Garden,’ and Hwacheon Daeyu, owned by Mr. A, participated as a private investor.

Lee Jae-myung converted the project, which had been promoted as a private development, into a public development after taking office as mayor and pushed forward the related project from 2015. However, controversy arose recently when it was revealed that Hwacheon Daeyu invested 50 million won in capital and received 57.7 billion won in dividends over three years.

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