Hwacheondaeyu Kim Man-bae gave 10 billion won to Park Young-soo's relative

Kim Man-bae, the largest shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, who has been suspected of receiving special favors during the development process of Daejang-dong in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, is appearing at the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul on the 27th for investigation. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] It has been revealed that Kim Man-bae (57), the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management (Hwacheon Daeyu), handed over 10 billion won to a businessman related by marriage to former special prosecutor Park Young-soo.

According to the legal community on the 3rd, Kim delivered 10 billion won to Lee Mo (50), the head of the Daejang-dong sales agency, out of the 47.3 billion won borrowed from Hwacheon Daeyu under the name of long-term loans until last year.

Lee and former special prosecutor Park are known to be related by marriage. Lee also served as the CEO of a KOSDAQ-listed company A until around 2018, while former special prosecutor Park served as an outside director of company A for about one month from January to February 2014 before resigning due to "personal reasons."

Based on the relationship between Lee and former special prosecutor Park, suspicions have arisen that part of the 10 billion won Kim handed to Lee was ultimately delivered to former special prosecutor Park.

Kim’s legal representative stated to Yonhap News on the same day, "It is true that Kim lent 10 billion won at Lee’s request related to business, but it is unrelated to former special prosecutor Park."

The prosecution is also known to be tracking the flow of funds to verify the exact usage after identifying these facts.

Among the funds suspected to be lobbying money distributed by Hwacheon Daeyu, those revealed so far include 5 billion won received as severance pay by Gwak Sang-do’s son Byung-chae (32), an apartment purchased by former special prosecutor Park’s daughter, and 1.1 billion won received by Yoo Dong-gyu, former Planning Director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, who had an arrest warrant requested on charges of breach of trust and bribery.

It is known that the prosecution recently detected signs of fund transactions amounting to hundreds of billions of won through recorded conversations of persons involved in the Daejang-dong development project, and the scale of suspicious funds is expected to expand depending on the progress of the prosecution’s investigation.

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