Prosecutors Suspect 100 Million Won of Kim Yong's Illegal Funds Used for Lee Jae-myung's Primary Election Contribution

The prosecution has launched an investigation after detecting suspicious circumstances suggesting that illegal funds received by former Deputy Director Kim Yong of the Democratic Research Institute from the Daejang-dong gang were used as the preliminary primary election deposit for Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, in the 2021 presidential election.

Kim Yong, former Vice President of the Democratic Research Institute [Photo by Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 16th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 3 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kang Baek-shin) secured call recordings, bank slips, and other evidence containing such circumstances while tracing the usage of 847 million won that Kim is suspected of receiving from the Daejang-dong gang.

Based on this, the prosecution suspects that Kim moved the cash he received to Lee's residence, after which employees of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Secretariat deposited the money into Lee's account. Between June 28 and 29, 2021, a total of 325 million won was deposited into Lee's Nonghyup bank account, which matches the amount of cash Lee declared as of the end of 2020 during his 2021 public official asset disclosure. Lee used 100 million won of this amount around July 2021 as a preliminary primary election deposit for the Democratic Party's presidential candidate.

Lee's side claims that this money was cash held for handling election deposits and condolence money for his mother's funeral. However, the prosecution believes the source of this money is Kim, as Kim received 400 million won in cash through Yoo Dong-gyu from Nam Wook, who had arranged the funds, between May and June 2021.

The prosecution also secured a call recording file that appears to show Baek Mo, a former Grade 5 public official at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government known to be a close aide of Lee, urgently depositing money in accordance with Lee's asset disclosure details.

The file reportedly includes Baek saying, "If you tell me the cash declaration details (for asset disclosure), I will deposit accordingly," and scenes of him hastily sending a subordinate to Sunae-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where Lee's residence is located.

The prosecution partially disclosed this during Kim's trial for violating the Political Funds Act held at the Seoul Central District Court on the 4th. The prosecution questioned Kim, "Do you know the source of candidate Lee Jae-myung's deposit?" and "Did you deliver 100 million won out of the 400 million won you received to the candidate?" Kim responded, "I don't know," and retorted, "If you suspect such things, investigate it."

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