Prosecutors Conduct Search and Seizure at Gyeonggi Provincial Office... Secure Emails of Lee Jae-myung's Closest Aide Jeong Jin-sang

Jin Sang Jeong, Chief of Political Coordination Office, Office of the Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The prosecution investigating Jeong Jin-sang, chief political coordinator of the Democratic Party leader’s office and a close aide to Lee Jae-myung, who is accused of accepting bribes from developers of Daejang-dong, has conducted a search and seizure at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government office.

According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office investigation team sent prosecutors and investigators to the Gyeonggi Provincial Government office in the afternoon to secure email records exchanged between Jeong and provincial government employees during his tenure as the head of the policy office in the governor’s secretariat from 2018 to 2021.

Jeong was arrested on the 19th of this month on four charges: bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, acceptance of bribes after wrongful acts, violation of the Anti-Corruption Act, and obstruction of justice by instructing evidence destruction. He filed a detention review petition at the Seoul Central District Court the day before. The detention review is a procedure where a detained or arrested suspect, their lawyer, legal representative, or family requests the competent court to review whether the detention or arrest is justified. The hearing for Jeong will be held on the 23rd at 2:10 p.m. before the Criminal Appeals Division 4-1 (Presiding Judge Yang Ji-jung, Judges Jeon Yeon-suk and Cha Eun-kyung).

Jeong is accused of receiving 140 million KRW in six installments from the Daejang-dong group between February 2013 and October 2020 (bribery under the Special Act), and promising to share approximately 42.8 billion KRW in development profits from Daejang-dong with Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, and others, including Kim Bu-won and Yoo Dong-gyu, former planning directors of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, in exchange for selecting the Daejang-dong developer (acceptance of bribes after wrongful acts).

He is also accused of leaking internal secrets of Seongnam City and Seongnam Urban Development Corporation to private developers such as lawyer Nam Wook between July 2013 and March 2017, enabling their selection as developers for the Wirye New Town project, allowing Hoban Construction to implement and construct the project, thereby obtaining development profits worth approximately 21 billion KRW (violation of the Anti-Corruption Act). Additionally, on September 29 of last year, when a prosecution search and seizure was imminent, he allegedly instructed former director Yoo to throw his mobile phone out the window to destroy evidence (obstruction of justice by instructing evidence destruction).

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