Prosecutors: "Yoon Kwan-seok Planned to Distribute Cash Envelopes with Money Information in Song Young-gil's Rival Camp"

Yoon Kwan-seok, a key suspect in the Democratic Party's '2021 Party Convention Money Envelope Distribution Incident,' was investigated for planning to distribute money envelopes as a countermeasure after obtaining information that the campaign of former leader Song Young-gil's rival was distributing money and goods.

Independent lawmaker Yoon Kwan-seok Photo by Yonhap News

This suggests the possibility that not only Song's camp but also other camps engaged in money distribution during the 2021 Democratic Party convention, drawing attention.

According to the arrest warrant request submitted by the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Young-chul) against independent lawmaker Lee Sung-man, who voluntarily disclosed it on the 30th, Song's camp was struggling due to a decline in approval ratings ahead of the May 2, 2021 party convention.

At that time, Song's nationwide delegate approval rating had been declining since it was recorded at 51.8% on January 29, 2021, and the gap with competing candidates (Hong Young-pyo and Woo Won-shik) was narrowing. Then, on April 23, under Yoon's instructions, the primary campaign created a detailed action guideline titled 'Organizational Headquarters Requests.'

This guideline included instructions to contact nationwide delegates to request support for Song Young-gil, to have metropolitan and basic council members contact local party members to support Song, and to reach out to key local opinion leaders and core party members to support Song as well.

Meanwhile, Yoon obtained information that the rival candidate's camp was appealing for support by providing money and goods to Democratic Party lawmakers. Prosecutors believe that Yoon judged it necessary to provide cash to prevent the defection of his support base and to actively encourage lawmakers who had not expressed clear support. However, the prosecutors did not specify which rival camp was involved in the indictment.

Park, an aide to former leader Song, delivered ten envelopes each containing 3 million won in cash to Lee Jung-geun, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, who then handed them to Yoon on April 27. Yoon planned to distribute this cash on April 28, the first day of the online voting for delegates and party members, to maximize Song's vote share. Prosecutors identified that one envelope was provided to lawmaker Lee, who attended a 'Members of the National Assembly Meeting' chaired by Yoon in the Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee's small conference room on the morning of April 28.

The prosecutors argued that the need to detain lawmaker Lee is high due to clear evidence such as recorded phone calls, National Assembly entry records, and testimonies from related parties confirming the facts, while Lee consistently denied the charges with implausible excuses, raising concerns about evidence destruction.

The motion to approve the arrest of Yoon and Lee was reported to the plenary session of the National Assembly that afternoon. The vote will take place on the 12th of next month.

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