Police Request Additional Data on Official Vehicle Dispatch in Gyeonggi Province... Investigation into Lee Jae-myung Accelerates

Verification of Kim Hye-kyung's Personal Misuse
Observed in the Context of National Treasury Loss Allegations

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Seongpil Jo and Sehee Jang] It was confirmed on the 25th that the police requested data regarding the allocation details of official vehicles from the Gyeonggi Provincial Government. This is interpreted as a procedure to investigate whether Kim Hye-kyung, spouse of Lee Jae-myung, Senior Advisor of the Democratic Party of Korea and former governor of Gyeonggi Province, misused official vehicles for personal purposes. It appears that the investigation into various allegations related to Advisor Lee is accelerating.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency requested the Asset Management Division of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government on the 23rd to submit the license plate numbers of official vehicles assigned on a fixed basis from July 1, 2018, to May 2022. This procedure is known to be aimed at determining whether Kim exclusively used official vehicles intended for employees' business trips and other work purposes.

The police are currently investigating Kim’s alleged embezzlement of public funds related to the misuse of corporate credit cards. The amount of public funds loss under review by the police includes embezzlement of corporate credit cards and rental costs of official vehicles. This data request is also seen as part of this ongoing investigation.

Last week, the police reportedly visited the Protocol Team of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government to request cooperation in the investigation. On April 4th, the police conducted a search and seizure of the General Affairs Division and Protocol Team of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government in connection with allegations of Kim’s misuse of corporate credit cards. This recent visit to the Gyeonggi Provincial Government is said to be the second since that search and seizure. As investigations into preferential treatment involving corporate credit cards and official vehicles proceed behind the scenes, there are speculations that Kim’s summons may be imminent.

The police intensified investigations into allegations related to Advisor Lee after the presidential election in March. Regarding the corporate card allegations and the Seongnam FC sponsorship fund suspicions, on the 17th, they conducted search and seizure operations at the headquarters of Doosan Construction and the Seongnam FC club office. On the 2nd, they also searched Seongnam City Hall. These are the third series of forced investigations into allegations related to Advisor Lee since the presidential election. Additionally, the police are investigating the Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong development projects, allegations of prostitution and illegal gambling involving Advisor Lee’s son Dong-ho, and suspicions of an unofficial camp at the Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Corporation (GH) dormitory. The case concerning the ‘Hye-gyeong-gung Kimssi Twitter allegations,’ which was refiled by the civic group ‘Action Alliance for Establishing the Rule of Law,’ was dismissed (non-prosecution) on the 8th of last month, thus concluding the case. It is reported that the police dismissed the case because the complainant withdrew the accusation.

While the police maintain that the investigation is being conducted according to law and principles, opposition parties suspect it to be a retaliatory investigation related to the presidential election and an attempt to influence the June 1 local elections. Democratic Party members of the National Assembly including Seo Young-kyo, Lee Hae-sik, Oh Young-hwan, Park Chan-dae, and Lee Soo-jin visited the National Police Agency this morning to protest the investigations into various allegations against Advisor Lee. Seo, chairperson of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee, stated during the visit, “As soon as candidate Lee announced his intention to run, a large-scale investigation was launched,” and demanded, “Stop political retaliation immediately and apologize to the public.”

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