Prosecution's First Interrogation After Detaining Song Young-gil's Former Aide, Key Figure in 'Money Envelope Suspicion'

The prosecution investigating the Democratic Party of Korea's '2021 Party Convention Money Envelope Suspicion' has summoned and is questioning a former aide who was in charge of managing funds for former party leader Song Young-gil, the main beneficiary of the case, for the first time since his detention.

Former aide Park Yong-su of Song Young-gil, former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 6th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Young-chul) summoned former aide Park Yong-soo from detention for questioning. This is his first interrogation since his arrest on the 3rd.

Park has been identified as the 'chief' in charge of fund management within the primary election campaign, involved throughout the money envelope distribution suspicion. He is accused of conspiring with Kang Rae-gu, former Standing Auditor of Korea Water Resources Corporation, and Lee Jung-geun, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, to distribute a total of 67.5 million won ahead of the party convention (violations of the Political Funds Act and the Political Parties Act, among others).

The prosecution believes Park provided a total of 60 million won, including 50 million won received from businessman Kim under the name of campaign funds, to independent lawmaker Yoon Kwan-seok.

Prosecutors suspect that Yoon divided the money received from Park into 20 envelopes containing 3 million won each and distributed them to about 20 Democratic Party members of the National Assembly on April 28?29.

Park is also accused of having the consulting firm 'Yamjeonhan Goyangi' pay 92.4 million won for a primary-related opinion poll using funds from the Meoksa-yeon organization, and to conceal this, fabricated false estimates to make it appear as if Meoksa-yeon spent the money on other projects (violations of the Political Funds Act and the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Crime Proceeds).

About a month before former leader Song departed for France in November last year, Park is accused of instructing Meoksa-yeon staff to replace all hard drives in office computers to prevent discovery of materials related to the primary campaign activities (obstruction of evidence).

A prosecution official explained, "During Park's detention period, we plan to thoroughly verify not only the entire process of the money envelope distribution but also the instructions and conspiracies related to evidence destruction."

They are also focusing on specific operations regarding lawmakers suspected of receiving the money envelopes. The investigation team is analyzing seized items such as National Assembly entry records and cross-verifying access logs obtained during recent on-site investigations at the National Assembly.

Based on the investigation results of Park and others, the prosecution plans to consider whether to reapply for arrest warrants for lawmakers Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man, who previously avoided detention. Former leader Song is also expected to be summoned and questioned as a suspect.

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