Kim Jin-tae, "Regime Flatterer Park Eun-jung, Obstructing Investigation"... Lee Jae-myung Urges Special Prosecutor for 'Seongnam FC Bribery Allegation'

Seongnam FC Receives 16 Billion Won Sponsorship, Mayor Lee Jae-myung Suspected of Granting Corporate Favors
"Park Eun-jung, Deputy Chief Prosecutor from Chu Mi-ae Faction, Resigns After Blocking Seongnam FC Investigation"

Kim Jin-tae, Chairman of the Special Committee for National Verification of Lee Jae-myung's Corruption of the People Power Party (Chairman of the Chuncheon Gap Party Committee), is speaking at the verification special committee meeting. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Kim Jin-tae, Chairman of the People’s Power Party’s Special Committee for Public Verification of Lee Jae-myung’s Corruption (Chuncheon Gap Party Committee Chairman), who has been pressuring the prosecution daily regarding Lee Jae-myung’s ‘Seongnam FC bribery allegations’ case, has called for a ‘special prosecutor’ after the deputy chief prosecutor in charge of the case suddenly submitted a resignation.

The allegation concerns Lee Jae-myung, who served as mayor of Seongnam from 2015 to 2017 and was the owner of Seongnam FC, receiving 16 billion KRW from six companies under the name of sponsorship and advertising fees for Seongnam FC, and giving preferential treatment to those companies.

On the 26th, Chairman Kim stated on SNS, “The deputy chief prosecutor of the Seongnam branch office handling the Seongnam FC case has resigned,” adding, “It seems he submitted a protest resignation because Park Eun-jung, the Seongnam branch chief prosecutor and a representative prosecutor aligned with the Chu Mi-ae faction, blocked the case processing,” raising questions about the reason for the resignation.

He continued, “The Seongnam FC case is one where Mayor Lee Jae-myung was accused of receiving 16.5 billion KRW as bribes under the name of sponsorship from interested companies. In my view, the complaint could be used as an indictment as is,” effectively assuming Lee’s criminal charges as fact.

Chairman Kim also said, “I hear that the branch chief prosecutor even blocked requests for supplementary investigations from the police, not just immediate prosecution of the case,” and added, “If this is true, it’s like entrusting fish to a cat. It’s abandoning both law and conscience to curry favor with the regime.”

'Seongnam FC Bribery Allegation' Case Special Prosecutor Demand by Kim Jin-tae, Chairman of the People Power Party's Special Committee for Public Verification of Lee Jae-myung's Corruption (Chuncheon Gap District Party Committee Chairman) Twitter Capture

He then criticized, “The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office must immediately conduct an inspection into Park Eun-jung’s abuse of authority. The Seongnam branch office can no longer be entrusted with this case,” and urged, “Stop the Seongnam FC case and hand it over to a special prosecutor. Can’t we live without seeing such political prosecutors?”

Meanwhile, in legal circles, there is a widely held view that Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Ha-young of the Seongnam branch office resigned in protest because Park Eun-jung, his superior who is classified as pro-government, blocked the reinvestigation of the Seongnam FC sponsorship coercion allegations case filed by the Bareunmirae Party in June 2018 when Lee Jae-myung was mayor of Seongnam.

Park Eun-jung, who served as the Ministry of Justice’s Inspection Officer last year, is regarded as a representative pro-government prosecutor, having led the severe disciplinary action against then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.

Previously, in June 2018, the opposition party filed a complaint accusing Lee of third-party bribery, but the police, who had been investigating for over three years, dismissed the case without indictment in September last year.

The complainant filed an objection, and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park, who received the case, reportedly reviewed the police records and repeatedly reported the need for reinvestigation to Chief Prosecutor Park.

However, Chief Prosecutor Park is known to have repeatedly ordered reconsideration, effectively obstructing the investigation for about four months.

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