Prosecutors: "Kim Man-bae Gave 'Profit Concealment' Prison Orders to Lawyer Introduced by Kim Soo-nam" (Comprehensive)

Kim Man-bae (detained and indicted), the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, is known to have sought ways to protect his money when allegations of corruption in the Daejang-dong development project arose in 2021. During this process, the prosecution judged that he used a criminal case lawyer introduced by former Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam as if he were a butler to conceal a total of 39 billion KRW in criminal proceeds.

Kim Man-bae [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 15th, Kim's indictment details the process of concealing these criminal proceeds in depth.

According to the indictment, when suspicions about Daejang-dong surfaced in August 2021 and investigations seemed imminent, Kim met with former Prosecutor General Kim, who was also mentioned in the so-called '50 Billion Club,' to discuss response strategies.

Kim was introduced to lawyer A, a former prosecutor, by former Prosecutor General Kim. Lawyer A was investigated to have acted as a liaison among Kim, Lee Han-sung, co-CEO of Hwacheon Daeyu, and Choi Woo-hyang (former vice chairman of Ssangbangwool Group), a director, regarding the concealment and disposal of criminal proceeds. The prosecution viewed that lawyer-client meetings were exploited because conversations during such meetings are not recorded.

When news broke about former lawmaker Kwak Sang-do's son receiving a retirement payment of 5 billion KRW and the submission of the 'Jung Young-hak recording' to the prosecution, Kim quickly moved to protect the criminal proceeds from the Daejang-dong case.

Although lawyer A said, "I will request the prosecution not to file for seizure preservation in exchange for not leaking assets," Kim received a dividend of 50 billion KRW from Hwacheon Daeyu and began purchasing farmland around Suwon City.

When Kim purchased farmland around Omokcheon-dong, Suwon City, around August 2021, he reportedly engaged in so-called 'blocking' and obtained consent forms from local landowners, planning to proceed with urban development projects such as apartment construction in the same manner as the Daejang-dong project.

Kim was also concerned about the possibility of a tax investigation by the National Tax Service. After asking lawyer A to monitor the Seoul Regional National Tax Service's movements and receiving information that an investigation was imminent, he instructed to withdraw checks and purchase additional farmland.

Kim also used lawyer A as a communication channel with political circles. Between November 2021 and January 2022, regarding Jeong Jin-sang, former chief of the Democratic Party's office for political coordination, who was not mentioned in the embezzlement indictment but appeared in the Jung Young-hak recordings, Kim conveyed messages through lawyer A to 'political figures' not to worry. Subsequently, through lawyer A, he received a message from political figures saying, "Don't worry, the camp is taking good care of it. Jeong will never appear."

However, Jeong was subjected to a non-public prosecution investigation in January last year. When Kim learned of this through media reports, he asked lawyer A to inform him about the investigation status and was reported that Jeong was being investigated for having communicated with Kim more than 20 times a year at the prosecution.

At that time, when the Jung Young-hak recordings were reported in the media, Kim and lawyer A also discussed that the recordings should not be released until the 20th presidential election.

Meanwhile, lawyer A issued a statement on the day, denying the allegations, saying, "I have neither illegally interfered with the disposal of the client's assets nor had any reason to do so."

He said, "During the defense or advisory process, I only gave opinions such as 'It would be better to repay the company's debts' or 'Such fund execution could be grounds for embezzlement,' and the parts listed as 'etc.' include content unrelated to me."

In particular, he claimed, "There is a part where a few words written in the lawyer's visitation notes were arbitrarily speculated and recorded as communication between a detained defendant and lawyer, which should be confidential, but this is completely untrue."

Regarding Jeong's appearance, he explained, "There may have been a conversation like 'Would he appear before the presidential election?' but I had no contact with political circles, and the tax investigation was just a usual conversation like 'If there is a problem, he might have to appear.'"

Regarding the release of the recordings, he explained that when he said, "It is cautious because if the prosecution hands over the recording files to the lawyer before the presidential election and they are accidentally leaked, the lawyers could be investigated," Kim replied, "Then take your time receiving them."

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