Police Form 38-Member Special Investigation Team for Hwacheondaeyu... Accelerating Investigation Pace

Representative of Cheonhwadongin No. 1 Likely to Be Summoned Soon

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The police investigating the allegations of preferential treatment in the Daejang-dong development project in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province have formed a dedicated investigation team at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency and have begun a full-scale investigation.

On the 29th, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency announced that it had formed a dedicated investigation team to investigate the complaints related to Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management (Hwacheon Daeyu). The dedicated investigation team consists of 38 personnel, including 27 members from the Anti-Corruption Economic Crime Investigation Unit led by Chief Superintendent Ko Seok-gil as team leader, and 11 members from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

Earlier, the National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters assigned all cases, including the allegations of preferential treatment in the Daejang-dong development project filed by civic groups, the suspicion of a 5 billion KRW retirement payment to the son of Assemblyman Kwak Sang-do, and the pre-indictment investigation (internal investigation) into Hwacheon Daeyu’s suspicious financial flows, to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency. The National Investigation Headquarters explained, "The cases were assigned to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency because the main acts of the allegations occurred there, and the corporations and key related parties are based there."

One day after receiving the case, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency formed the dedicated investigation team and plans to accelerate the investigation. First, they received all related materials from the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul, which had been conducting a pre-indictment investigation into the financial flows between Kim Man-bae, the largest shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, and Lee Seong-moon, the CEO of Hwacheon Daeyu. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Financial Services Commission detected suspicious financial flows of Hwacheon Daeyu in April and notified the National Police Agency. The Yongsan Police Station has recently been investigating Kim as a witness and conducting a pre-indictment investigation. To ensure continuity of the investigation, seven investigators from the Yongsan Police Station’s intelligence team have been assigned to the dedicated investigation team.

Additionally, the investigation team summoned a representative of the People’s Livelihood Countermeasures Committee as a complainant for questioning this afternoon, and plans to summon and question Lee Han-seong, the representative of Cheonhwa Dongin No. 1, who is considered a key figure in this case, in the near future.

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