'Double Dragon Bribery Allegation' Arrest Warrant Denied for Former Gyeonggi Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young's Close Aide
[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The arrest warrant for a close aide of Lee Hwa-young, CEO of Kintex (former Deputy Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province), who is accused of accepting bribes from Ssangbangwool Group, was dismissed on the 24th.
Park Jung-ho, the chief judge in charge of warrants at Suwon District Court, dismissed the arrest warrant for Mr. A (48), who is accused of aiding embezzlement in the course of duty, stating, "At this stage, the necessity of detention or concerns about flight risk and evidence tampering have not been substantiated."
Earlier, the Criminal Division 6 of Suwon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Young-nam) had requested an arrest warrant for Mr. A on charges of receiving approximately 90 million won in salary without actually working at Ssangbangwool. However, with the dismissal of the arrest warrant, Mr. A will be investigated without detention.
Meanwhile, the prosecution has filed a pre-arrest warrant for CEO Lee on charges of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and violations of the Political Funds Act. They have also filed a pre-arrest warrant for Mr. B, the vice chairman of Ssangbangwool, who is accused of offering bribes to CEO Lee and others.
CEO Lee served as an outside director of Ssangbangwool from March 2017 to June 2018. Afterwards, he served as Deputy Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province from August 2018 to January 2020.
The prosecution believes that from the time CEO Lee took office as Deputy Governor for Peace until early this year, he received bribes worth about 200 million won from Ssangbangwool under the pretext of using corporate cards and other means.
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The substantive hearing for the pre-arrest warrant (pre-detention interrogation of the suspect) for CEO Lee is scheduled to take place at 10:30 a.m. on the 27th.
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