Prosecutors Raid Former Woori Bank Vice President in 'Park Young-soo 5 Billion Club' Case

The prosecution investigating former special prosecutor Park Young-soo's alleged involvement in the 'Daejang-dong 5 billion Club' conducted a search and seizure of a former vice president of Woori Bank.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The prosecution is known to have carried out the search and seizure on this day to ascertain the circumstances under which the 'Daejang-dong team,' including Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, submitted a letter of intent for credit at Woori Bank through former special prosecutor Park.

According to the legal community on the 25th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) sent prosecutors and investigators to secure materials at the residences of former Woori Credit Information CEO Kim Jong-won and Mr. Lee, former head of the Real Estate Finance Business Division at Woori Bank.

They worked respectively as head (vice president) and manager in the Real Estate Finance Business Division, which handled the letter of intent for credit in 2014 when former special prosecutor Park served as chairman of Woori Bank's outside board of directors.

The prosecution is investigating former special prosecutor Park on suspicion of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, believing that while serving as chairman of Woori Bank's outside board, he supported the consortium formation of the Daejang-dong team and promised to receive land and commercial buildings worth about 20 billion KRW from private contractors in exchange for facilitating project financing (PF) loans.

Woori Bank initially considered participating in the Seongnam Eutteul consortium of the Daejang-dong team but reportedly decided not to participate in March 2015 due to opposition from the screening department. Instead, it submitted a letter of intent for credit amounting to 150 billion KRW, expressing willingness to participate in the PF loan.

The prosecution suspects that former special prosecutor Park's influence played a role in this decision and conducted a search and seizure of his residence and office in March.

After completing the analysis of the seized materials and questioning related parties, the prosecution plans to summon former special prosecutor Park for investigation.

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