Prosecution summons Yang Jae-sik, former special prosecutor and close aide of Park Young-soo, in '50 Billion Club' case

The prosecution investigating former special prosecutor Park Young-soo's alleged involvement in the 'Daejang-dong 5 billion Club' scandal has summoned Yang Jae-sik, a former special prosecutor aide considered to be Park's closest associate.

Lawyer Yang Jae-sik [Photo by Asia Economy DB]

According to the legal community on the 12th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) called lawyer Yang in the morning as a suspect under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, including bribery, and is currently investigating him.

The prosecution believes that lawyer Yang was responsible for the practical work during the process of exchanges of favors between former special prosecutor Park and private operators in Daejang-dong. Having maintained a relationship with Park for about 20 years since their time as prosecutors, Yang also served as a special prosecutor aide in the 2016 state corruption special investigation team.

Former special prosecutor Park is accused of promising to have Woori Bank participate as a shareholder in the Seongnam Utdel consortium in November 2014, when he was chairman of Woori Bank's board, in exchange for land and commercial buildings worth approximately 20 billion KRW from the Daejang-dong group.

Initially, Woori Bank considered participating as an investor in the Seongnam Utdel consortium but ultimately decided not to participate in March 2015 due to opposition from the review department. Instead, it submitted a letter of intent for a 150 billion KRW project financing (PF) loan on March 23. As a result, the Seongnam Utdel consortium received nearly perfect scores in the 'funding' category of the private operator evaluation criteria.

The prosecution suspects that as Woori Bank's role was reduced, the amount of money promised to former special prosecutor Park also decreased from 20 billion KRW to 5 billion KRW.

In particular, the prosecution is investigating on the grounds that Park's side initially demanded compensation worth 20 billion KRW from the Daejang-dong group, and that lawyer Yang played a practical role by communicating with them and reporting back to Park.

It is reported that the prosecution recently secured a statement from accountant Jeong Young-hak that 'lawyer Yang demanded compensation for assisting in the formation of the Daejang-dong consortium.' Private operators Kim Man-bae and Nam Wook also reportedly gave similar testimonies.

Following the summons and investigation of lawyer Yang, it is expected that former special prosecutor Park will soon undergo prosecution questioning as well.

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