Employee Selling Phone Cheaply Without Owner's Knowledge and Postpaid Bribery... Han Dong-hoon Draws Attention with Metaphor This Time

On the 27th, Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice, went to the National Assembly and emphasized the necessity of passing the arrest consent bill for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, drawing attention by comparing the charges to real-life examples.

Minister Han first described the cases involving Lee as "actually very simple," stating, "This is a case of collusion between Mayor Lee and certain businesspeople in Seongnam City, a local government, involving local entrenched corruption. Many accomplices, including Mayor Lee, have already been arrested or indicted without detention on the same criminal charges."

Lee Jae-myung, Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Regarding the Wirye and Daejang-dong development corruption cases, he said, "Instead of selling at a fair price to competitors who went through fair competition, the property was deliberately sold at a low price to Kim Man-bae and his group, who had prearranged and predetermined the deal," adding, "This crime caused astronomical damage to the citizens of Seongnam, the rightful owners of the development rights."

He drew an analogy, saying, "It is like a salesperson secretly conspiring with an acquaintance to sell a 1 million won cellphone for 100,000 won without the owner's knowledge," and added, "In this case, the owner suffers a loss of 900,000 won; the excuse that at least 100,000 won was earned does not hold."

He continued, "Out of the 960.6 billion won profit from Daejang-dong, Seongnam City only received 183 billion won," and said, "The essence of this crime is that although Seongnam City did all the work, the profits were monopolized by Mayor Lee's side and Kim Man-bae's group, who were colluding."

He also listed the collusive relationship between Lee and Kim Man-bae's group, emphasizing, "As a result of fraudulent collusion, Kim Man-bae's group earned an astronomical profit of 788.6 billion won, more than 2,000 times their investment of about 350 million won. This is the point that has outraged the entire nation." He added, "From the citizens' perspective, it is not the 'greatest achievement since Dangun' but rather the 'greatest loss since Dangun.'

Regarding the bribery charges related to Seongnam FC, he stated firmly, "The bribes were paid in a postpaid and installment manner." He further claimed, "Companies did not trust Mayor Lee and only paid bribes after confirming that promised favors were actually granted one by one." He also emphasized, "The illegal quid pro quo was this clear and blatant."

Minister Han spoke about the evidence, saying, "A special aspect of this case is that the crimes were carried out over a long period with a public facade, leaving a lot of internal materials, that is, physical evidence, proving the criminal charges against Seongnam City and the large corporations involved." He added, "Not only the Daejang-dong businesspeople but also corporate insiders are telling the truth despite risking punishment for bribery. The courts have already made several rulings on the illegality."

Finally, Minister Han said, "The legal grounds for detention, such as the risk of flight, in white-collar crimes imply the possibility of a heavy sentence," and stated, "There is no criminal charge against 'Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung' anywhere in what I have explained. There are only charges of local entrenched corruption against 'Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung.'"

He added, "We all know what decision aligns with the common sense and law of the Republic of Korea in 2023."

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