[Exclusive] Lee Jong-ho Earned 16 Billion Won from 'Public Patents,' Donated Only 130 Million Won... Also Donated 100,000 Won to Yoon

Office of National Assembly Member Jo Seung-rae, Democratic Party of Korea

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] It has been reported that Lee Jong-ho, the nominee for Minister of Science and ICT, has earned approximately 16 billion KRW in revenue from semiconductor technology patents funded by tens of billions of won from the national treasury. Meanwhile, the total amount donated to his alma mater and institutions where he has worked was confirmed to be about 130 million KRW.

According to the office of Assemblyman Cho Seung-rae of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 4th, Lee donated 50 million KRW to Seoul National University, where he was employed at the time, 30 million KRW to Kyungpook National University, his alma mater and former workplace, and 30 million KRW each to Wonkwang University, where he worked during the patent development. This was five years after agreeing in 2012 to receive 10 billion KRW in royalties from Intel for the semiconductor circuit integration technology 'Bulk FinFET.'

In addition to these lump-sum donations under the name of development funds, Lee has regularly donated around 1 million KRW annually to Seoul National University. Including other miscellaneous donations, the total amount donated over the past decade is approximately 134 million KRW. There were no donation records from 2012 to 2016. Last year, he also donated 100,000 KRW in political funds to the campaign committee of then-presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol. After entering politics in May last year, Yoon visited the Seoul National University Semiconductor Research Institute, where Lee works as a director.

Lee invented the Bulk FinFET in 2001 while a professor at Wonkwang University through joint research with KAIST. He personally filed and obtained overseas patents because, although KAIST filed for domestic patents, for unknown reasons, they did not file for overseas patents. Since 2012, Lee has filed lawsuits against semiconductor companies with an intellectual property management company and won, reportedly earning about 16 billion KRW in patent royalties to date. Additionally, after effectively winning a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics in 2020, further revenue in the hundreds of millions of won is expected.

After agreeing to receive 10 billion KRW in technology royalties from Intel in 2012, Lee purchased an apartment worth about 1.3 billion KRW in Seocho-gu, Seoul, jointly with his wife, and also bought foreign luxury cars such as BMW. During this process, he did not pay gift tax on the apartment shares and 60 million KRW in cash given to his wife, which caused controversy when he belatedly paid it on the 14th of last month after being nominated as minister. Ahead of this confirmation hearing, Lee declared assets totaling about 16 billion KRW, including 14.777 billion KRW in his name, the highest among the first cabinet nominees of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. Most of this was 11.79 billion KRW in deposits.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee held a confirmation hearing yesterday and adopted a confirmation report on Lee.

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