Former aide Song Young-gil appears for detention hearing over Democratic Party money envelope allegations

A former aide, identified as the chief fund manager for Song Young-gil's campaign during the 2021 Democratic Party leadership election, has appeared for a detention hearing.

Park Yong-su, former aide to Song Young-gil, former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who has been indicted on charges including violation of the Political Parties Act, is attending the warrant hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court on the 3rd.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 3rd, Judge Yoo Chang-hoon of the Seoul Central District Court, who is in charge of warrants, held a pre-arrest detention hearing for Park Yong-soo, a former aide to ex-leader Song, who is accused of violating the Political Parties Act and other charges.

Park did not respond to reporters' questions about whether he acted under ex-leader Song's instructions and proceeded to the courtroom. The decision on Park's detention is expected as early as that afternoon or the following early morning.

Park is accused of conspiring with Kang Rae-gu, former standing auditor of Korea Water Resources Corporation, and Lee Jeong-geun, former deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Party, to secure Song's election during the May 2021 Democratic Party leadership election by receiving 50 million won and distributing 67.5 million won.

The prosecution believes that in April, Park received 50 million won from businessman Kim, who was identified as a so-called "sponsor," and combined it with funds he was holding to provide 60 million won in two installments to Assemblyman Yoon Kwan-seok.

Yoon is reported to have divided this money into 20 envelopes of 3 million won each and distributed them to about 20 Democratic Party lawmakers between April 28 and 29.

Park is also accused of providing 7.5 million won in operational campaign funds to the Seoul regional situation room chief and others around the same time. Additionally, he is charged with having the external support organization for ex-leader Song, the "Peace and Livelihood Issues Research Institute," cover 92.4 million won in polling costs related to the primary election commissioned to the consulting firm "Yamjeonhan Goyangi," and instructing the replacement of the institute's hard disk to destroy evidence.

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