Prosecutors Refile Warrants for Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man over 'Money Envelope'... Detention Review Without National Assembly Vote (Comprehensive)

The prosecution investigating the Democratic Party of Korea's '2021 Party Convention Money Envelope Suspicion' refiled arrest warrants against independent lawmakers Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man on the 1st. This comes about seven weeks after the first arrest warrants were automatically dismissed in June due to the National Assembly's rejection of the consent for arrest.

Yoon Kwan-seok, Lee Sung-man Independent Members of Parliament
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Young-chul) filed arrest warrants against the two lawmakers on charges of violating the Political Parties Act. A prosecution official stated, "This is an unprecedented large-scale organized bribery election case and an anti-constitutional criminal act," adding, "Accurate investigation of the lawmakers who received money is necessary, and due to concerns over evidence destruction, we have refiled the arrest warrants."

Lawmaker Yoon is accused of distributing a total of 60 million won, 3 million won each to 20 incumbent Democratic Party lawmakers, ahead of the Democratic Party's 2021 party convention in May, to support former party leader Song Young-gil's election. Investigations revealed that around the end of April that year, Yoon specifically proposed to the primary campaign staff, "Since the competing candidate's camp is giving 3 million won to each lawmaker, we should also give that amount to our lawmakers."

Subsequently, Park Yong-soo, who was a secretary to former leader Song, reportedly received 50 million won from businessman Kim, identified as the so-called 'sponsor,' and combined with funds within the campaign, provided 60 million won to Lawmaker Yoon in two installments, according to the prosecution.

The prosecution believes that on April 28-29, over two days, Yoon distributed 20 envelopes containing 3 million won each to Democratic Party lawmakers at the National Assembly Main Building's Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee small conference room and the Members' Office Building, under the pretext of ordering regional delegates to vote for former leader Song.

Lawmaker Lee is accused of providing 1 million won to Lee Jung-geun, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, in March 2021 for primary campaign operating expenses, and 10 million won in cash to Kang Rae-gu, former Standing Auditor of Korea Water Resources Corporation, and others to give to regional headquarters chiefs to support former leader Song's election. He is also accused of receiving a money envelope containing 3 million won from Lawmaker Yoon in April of the same year.

Since the National Assembly session is suspended until the temporary session opens on August 16, the decision on whether to detain the two incumbent lawmakers will be made by the court without a vote on the consent for arrest in the National Assembly. The Seoul Central District Court is expected to soon schedule a pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant review) date.

Seoul Seocho-gu Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. / Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Earlier, the prosecution filed arrest warrants against the two lawmakers on May 24, but the consent for arrest was rejected at the plenary session held in the National Assembly on June 12, resulting in automatic dismissal without a court warrant review.

The charges in the refiled arrest warrants are largely the same as those in the previously dismissed warrants. The prosecution stated that after the first warrant was dismissed, they supplemented evidence related to the two lawmakers' charges and that concerns over evidence destruction remain, making the refile inevitable.

It is known that the prosecution reflected additional details about the identification of lawmakers who received money envelopes, which progressed during the detention investigation of Park Yong-soo and the search of the National Assembly Secretariat, in this arrest warrant. Accordingly, they plan to secure the custody of the two lawmakers, complete the identification of the recipients, and verify whether former leader Song gave instructions or was involved.

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