Police Decide Not to Prosecute Hwang Bo-yeon, Seoul City Economic Policy Director, on Real Estate Speculation Allegations

Photo by Moon Honam, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency archive / Moon Honam reporter munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The police have decided not to prosecute Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Economic Policy at Seoul City Hall, who was suspected of real estate speculation.

According to the police on the 6th, the Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency decided not to prosecute the case involving Director Hwang, who was accused of violating the Public Officials Ethics Act (duty to prevent conflicts of interest), at the end of last year and concluded the investigation.

After summoning officials from Seoul City, Yongsan District, and Director Hwang for questioning, the police determined that Director Hwang did not use confidential information in the process of purchasing real estate. The police stated, “After comprehensively reviewing the housing purchase process, document approval procedures, and overall project implementation, it is difficult to see that confidential information was used, and the process was not different from a typical purchase.”

The Seoul branch of the Justice Party and Kwon Soo-jung, a Seoul City Council member affiliated with the Justice Party, filed a complaint with the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Headquarters in May last year, alleging that "Hwang, then acting director and a high-ranking public official directly involved in the redevelopment project, violated the Public Officials Ethics Act by purchasing houses and land in a district where he knew at some point that a development project could be promoted."

According to them, during the approval process for the Hannam 3 District redevelopment project in November 2017, Director Hwang, who was the approver of the environmental impact assessment review report, acquired a house and land worth about 1 billion KRW in the district just nine days after approving the assessment report. They raised suspicions that it would have been practically impossible for Hwang to purchase the land and house at that time without using insider information, but the police found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Previously, Director Hwang was nominated as the candidate for Director of Planning and Coordination at Seoul City Hall but was replaced during the Blue House personnel screening process due to real estate issues.

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