Former Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo: "No Reason to Request Prosecution of Busan Savings Bank Case"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Former special prosecutor Park Young-soo strongly denied reports that he and Yoon Seok-yeol, then a prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department, helped Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, resolve the Busan Savings Bank case.

On the 7th, Park's side issued a statement saying, "While working as a lawyer, I have never once distorted facts or requested cases from junior prosecutors beyond common sense," emphasizing, "There is absolutely no reason to request the Jo Woo-hyung case to the prosecution."

Earlier, Newstapa released an audio file containing a conversation from September last year between Kim and his acquaintance Shin Hak-rim, former chairman of the Media Union. In the file, Kim claimed that during the 2011 investigation of the Busan Savings Bank by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department, he introduced former special prosecutor Park as a lawyer at the request of broker Jo Woo-hyung. Since he could not directly ask Yoon Seok-yeol, then head of the Central Investigation Division 2 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and now the People Power Party's presidential candidate, about Jo's case, he introduced Park as someone who could "communicate" with Yoon.

However, Park's side stated, "The Jo Woo-hyung related case was not about illegal loan parties but involved a witness related to someone else's financial transactions," adding, "Even the law firm was unaware of any connection to illegal loan mediation." They also said, "Reporting as if a case request was made by citing baseless private conversations to the general public, who do not know the context, is wrong."

They further added, "If one understands that the prosecution has an internal control system during special investigations to block illegal or improper involvement at each stage, it would be clear that, contrary to some reports, it is impossible to cover up a case recklessly through lawyer requests."

Jo Woo-hyung illegally mediated a project financing loan of 115.5 billion won from Busan Savings Bank in 2009 for Daejang Financial Project Financing Investment (Daejang PFV), led by Lee Kang-gil, receiving 1.03 billion won as a fee. Jo and Lee were investigated by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department and were cleared of charges. However, in 2015, Jo was prosecuted by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office on charges of receiving bribes from Lee and was sentenced to prison.

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