Prosecutors Summon Former Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo, Chairman of Money Today, Over '5 Billion Club' Allegations

Former Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The prosecution has summoned former special prosecutor Park Young-soo, whose name was mentioned in the so-called '50 Billion Club.' The suspicion surrounding the 50 Billion Club is that the prosecution received or promised to receive money from the Daejang-dong developers.

According to the legal community on the 26th, the dedicated investigation team of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Team Leader Kim Tae-hoon, 4th Deputy Chief Prosecutor) summoned former special prosecutor Park in the afternoon and is currently investigating him.

On this day, the prosecution is reportedly investigating former special prosecutor Park regarding his relationship with Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management (Hwacheon Daeyu), his role during the investigation of the 2011 Busan Savings Bank case, and other allegations raised so far.

Former special prosecutor Park previously worked as a legal advisor for Hwacheon Daeyu, and it is reported that his daughter worked at Hwacheon Daeyu and purchased one remaining apartment unit from Hwacheon Daeyu at half price.

Lee, the representative of the Daejang-dong sales agency known to be a relative of Park, received 10.9 billion KRW from Kim and delivered 10 billion KRW of that amount to a civil engineering contractor named Na around 2019.

There are suspicions that during the investigation, statements emerged that Lee promised to give 5 billion KRW around 2014 to Kim and lawyer Nam as a reward for securing business rights and actually handed over about 4.5 billion KRW.

There is also controversy that former special prosecutor Park was involved in the Daejang-dong project because he served as the lawyer for Jo Woo-hyung, a loan broker from Busan Savings Bank who arranged loans worth over 100 billion KRW in 2009 for Lee Kang-gil’s private development company in Daejang-dong, when Jo was investigated by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department in 2011.

The prosecution also summoned and investigated Hong Seon-geun, chairman of Money Today, who was identified as part of the '50 Billion Club' on the same day. Chairman Hong is a senior journalist to Kim, who served as the head of the legal team at Money Today, and it is reported that from around 2019, he borrowed tens of billions of KRW from Kim three times with IOUs. Kim’s side reportedly testified in previous prosecution investigations that although Chairman Hong borrowed and repaid money in a short period, it was unrelated to the Daejang-dong project.

The prosecution is known to have confirmed with Chairman Hong the details of his financial transactions with Kim and his relationships with the Daejang-dong developers.

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