Prosecutors Reapply Warrants for Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man over 'Money Envelope'... Detention Hearing on 4th Without National Assembly Vote (Comprehensive Report 2)

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 following the rejection of the arrest consent motion in the National Assembly.

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 about 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, to support former party leader Song Young-gil's election ahead of the May 2021 Democratic Party convention. Investigations revealed that around late April of that year, Yoon specifically proposed to the primary campaign staff, "Since the competing candidate's camp is distributing 3 million won to lawmakers, we should also give that amount to our lawmakers."

Subsequently, Park Yong-soo, who was a secretary to former leader Song, 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 and 29, over two days, Yoon distributed 20 envelopes each containing 3 million won 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 former Democratic Party Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jung-geun in March 2021 for primary campaign operating expenses to support former leader Song's election, and 10 million won in cash to former Korea Water Resources Corporation Standing Auditor Kang Rae-gu and others for regional headquarters chiefs. He is also accused of receiving a 3 million won money envelope from Lawmaker Yoon in April of the same year.

Since the National Assembly session was suspended until the temporary session opened on August 16, the decision on whether to detain the two incumbent lawmakers will be made at 10 a.m. on the 4th at the Seoul Central District Court without a vote on the arrest consent motion in the National Assembly. The two lawmakers will undergo pre-arrest detention hearings (warrant substantive examinations) presided over by Chief Judges Yoon Jae-nam and Yoo Chang-hoon, respectively.

Previously, the prosecution filed arrest warrants against the two lawmakers on May 24, but the arrest consent motion was rejected at the plenary session of the National Assembly on June 12, resulting in automatic dismissal of the warrants without court 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 warrants were dismissed, they supplemented evidence related to the two lawmakers' charges and that concerns about evidence destruction remain, making the reapplication unavoidable.

The prosecution is known to have additionally reflected specific situations identifying lawmakers who received money envelopes, which progressed during the detention and investigation of Park Yong-soo and the search and seizure of the National Assembly Secretariat, in the current arrest warrants. They plan to secure the two lawmakers' custody, complete the identification of the lawmakers who received money, and verify whether former leader Song gave instructions or was involved.

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