Prosecution Moves to Reinvestigate 'Seongnam FC Sponsorship Fund Suspicion'... Raids 7 Locations Including Hyundai Department Store

Doosan Construction, Doosan Group Headquarters, Naver Followed by 4th Comprehensive Search and Seizure

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The prosecution investigating the ‘Seongnam FC sponsorship fund’ allegations conducted a search and seizure at seven locations, including Hyundai Department Store, on the morning of the 4th. The fact that companies deemed innocent by the police were also included in the prosecution’s search and seizure targets has strengthened the view that a de facto reinvestigation process has begun.

The Criminal Division 3 of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office Seongnam Branch (Chief Prosecutor Yoo Min-jong) has been conducting search and seizure operations at seven locations since the morning, including the NongHyup Seongnam City Branch, Hyundai Department Store, and the Alphadom City office.

This is the fourth time the prosecution has conducted search and seizure related to the Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations, following about 20 locations including the Doosan Construction headquarters, Seongnam City, and Seongnam FC office on the 16th, the Doosan Group headquarters on the 20th, and Naver on the 26th.

The ‘Seongnam FC allegations’ were raised in 2018 when the Bareunmirae Party filed a criminal complaint. The allegations claim that Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, while serving as mayor of Seongnam, acted as the club owner of Seongnam FC and secured large sponsorship funds from companies in exchange for resolving corporate issues.

In fact, after the Seongnam Ilhwa football team was transformed into the citizen football team Seongnam FC and Lee became the club owner, six companies within Seongnam City?Doosan Construction, Naver, NongHyup, Bundang Cha Hospital, Hyundai Department Store, and Alphadom City?provided a total of 16.05 billion KRW to Seongnam FC from 2015 to 2017 under the name of sponsorship and advertising fees.

The police, who previously investigated the case, concluded that Lee secured approximately 5.5 billion KRW in advertising sponsorship funds from Doosan Construction between 2016 and 2018, and in return, Doosan Group’s 3,000-pyeong hospital site in Jeongja-dong, Bundang-gu, was rezoned as commercial land. On the 13th, the police sent the case to the prosecution with a recommendation to indict Lee, one Seongnam city official, and the former CEO of Doosan Construction.

At that time, Seongnam City increased the floor area ratio, building scale, and total floor area by about three times and received 10% of the total site area as a donation, which led the police to judge that Doosan had provided enormous benefits.

On the other hand, the police found no charges against the other five companies?Naver, NongHyup Bank, Cha Hospital, Alphadom City, and Hyundai Department Store?that provided advertising sponsorship funds to Seongnam FC besides Doosan Construction.

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