Prosecutors to Investigate Higher-Ups in 'Party Convention Money Envelope' Case

The Weight of Re-requesting Warrants for Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man

Former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil, who is under suspicion of money envelope allegations related to the party convention, is making a statement after leaving the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 7th without being questioned. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

The prosecution's investigation into the Democratic Party's 'party convention money envelope scandal' is now turning its focus toward former leader Song Young-gil and the 'upper echelon,' including lawmakers who received the money envelopes.

The prosecution has consecutively indicted key campaign staff such as Kang Rae-gu, former standing auditor of the Korea Water Resources Corporation, and Park Yong-su, a former aide to Song. The next phase of the investigation is expected to focus on uncovering the involvement of higher-ups like former leader Song.

On the 23rd, legal circles anticipated that the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office would concentrate its future investigation on whether former leader Song was involved in distributing money envelopes and raising campaign funds through external support organizations. They also expect to identify exactly who the up to 20 incumbent lawmakers were that received 3 million won money envelopes from independent lawmaker Yoon Kwan-seok.

Earlier, the prosecution stated that it had secured materials clearly confirming the number of lawmakers who received the envelopes. Confidence has been expressed that significant progress has been made in identifying recipients through investigations of Park, who has been in custody, and analysis of seized materials from a former secretary who managed Song's schedule.

The prosecution views lawmaker Yoon as the so-called 'leader of the Song Young-gil faction,' who directly handed out a total of 60 million won to incumbent Democratic Party lawmakers at the end of April 2021.

Independent lawmaker Lee Sung-man is the only incumbent lawmaker directly named as a recipient so far. The prosecution requested arrest warrants for both Yoon and Lee in May, but these were automatically dismissed after the National Assembly rejected the arrest consent motions.

A variable in the case is the suspension of the National Assembly session between July 28, when the extraordinary session ends, and August 16, when the next extraordinary session begins. If arrest warrants are requested during this period, pre-arrest hearings for incumbent lawmakers can be held without a vote on the arrest consent motion in the Assembly.

The prosecution is intensifying its supplementary investigation related to incumbent lawmakers, as well as the funding allegations involving former leader Song's external organization, the 'Peace and Livelihood Issues Research Institute' (Meoksa-yeon).

On the 21st of this month, Park, who was in charge of Meoksa-yeon's accounting, was summoned for questioning.

After thoroughly examining the overall management of the primary campaign funds, the prosecution is expected to proceed with an investigation into former leader Song, who has been identified as the 'apex' of the allegations.

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