Former Prosecutor General Yang Bu-nam Investigated Twice by Police for Alleged Violation of Attorney Act

The Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 12th that they summoned and investigated Yang Bu-nam, the Legal Affairs Chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea (former Busan High Prosecutors' Office Chief Prosecutor), twice on suspicion of receiving a large retainer fee in exchange for quashing an investigation.

Yang Bu-nam, Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea (former Busan High Prosecutors' Office Chief) [Image source=Yonhap News]

The police questioned Chairman Yang at the end of last month and on the 10th, summoning him as a suspect for violating the Attorney-at-Law Act, to determine whether he received a request to quash the investigation.

Chairman Yang is suspected of receiving a large retainer fee in November 2020, shortly after retiring from the prosecution, from the operators of an online gambling site in Daegu as payment for quashing an investigation into charges of operating a gambling space. During the second investigation, the police also conducted a confrontation interrogation with the office manager of Lawyer A, who is facing the same charges. Lawyer A initially handled the case, and through them, Chairman Yang also took on the retainer.

The police have booked Chairman Yang, Lawyer A, and his office manager as suspects and conducted a search and seizure at Chairman Yang's law office in Seo-gu, Gwangju, in March. By tracking accounts around Chairman Yang, they confirmed that approximately 99 million KRW out of the total 280 million KRW retainer fee flowed into Chairman Yang's corporate account.

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