Prosecutors Notify Lee Jae-myung, Representative, to Appear as Suspect in ‘Baekhyeon-dong Development Project Favoritism’ Allegations

The prosecution investigating allegations of preferential treatment in the Baekhyeon-dong development project has notified Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, to appear as a suspect on charges of breach of trust and is currently negotiating a specific summons schedule.

Previously, Lee was summoned once for the Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations and twice for the Daejang-dong development project preferential treatment allegations. If he appears this time, it will be his fourth summons investigation since the presidential election.

On the 10th, a prosecution official said, "We are negotiating the summons schedule (with Lee's side)," adding, "It is difficult to confirm specific details."

On February 10th, Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, as a suspect. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

The Baekhyeon-dong development project preferential treatment allegations concern the change in development permit conditions for building and selling apartments on the former Korea Food Research Institute site in Baekhyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam City, covering 111,265 square meters, which were altered to favor private developers such as Chairman Jeong Ba-ul of Asia Developer. According to the Mountainous Area Management Act, when cutting into mountainous terrain to build structures, the vertical height of retaining walls must not exceed 15 meters. However, at that time, Seongnam City approved a land-use change allowing apartments with retaining walls approximately 50 meters high to be built in Baekhyeon-dong. Through this, Asia Developer earned sales revenue in the 300 billion KRW range.

The prosecution believes that Kim In-seop, former CEO of Korea Housing Technology (currently incarcerated), who had a close political relationship with Lee and his aide Jeong Jin-sang, former Political Coordination Officer at the Democratic Party leader's office, and Kim's associate Kim, requested favors in 2015 from then-Seongnam Mayor Lee, then-policy secretary Jeong, and relevant Seongnam city officials to successfully change the land use from natural green area to quasi-residential area in four stages. Kim was also known to maintain strong friendships with many Seongnam city officials through the Honam Hometown Association and other networks.

Earlier, in the arrest warrant for Kim, an associate of former representative Kim, filed by the prosecution on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, it was stated that Kim promised to receive 7 billion KRW from Chairman Jeong as a bribe for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project alongside Lee and former secretary Jeong, and actually received 3.5 billion KRW. Kim had worked as a secretary to former Seongnam Mayor Kim Byung-ryang from July 1998 to June 2002 and later served as CEO of a real estate consulting company in Yongin.

The prosecution's judgment is that in November 2013, Kim, together with former representative Kim, boasted to Chairman Jeong of their close ties with then-Seongnam Mayor Lee and former secretary Jeong, who was effectively the second-in-command at Seongnam City Hall, and promised to receive shares that would yield huge dividend profits if the Baekhyeon-dong project succeeded in exchange for resolving various permits related to the project.

Investigations revealed that former representative Kim made 115 calls to former secretary Jeong between April 2014 and March 2015, when the Baekhyeon-dong development project was underway. Notably, after Kim was detained in April 2015 for another bribery case, Kim's associate Kim reportedly visited him almost daily for a year, handling his instructions and reporting on their execution, effectively managing Seongnam City's government relations work, according to the prosecution.

Chairman Jeong recently testified at former representative Kim's trial that Kim demanded 20 billion KRW as a bribe, half of which he understood was intended for Lee and former secretary Jeong. Prior to Lee's summons, the prosecution summoned former secretary Jeong last month on the 25th for questioning as a suspect.

Meanwhile, attention is focused on whether an investigation will be conducted regarding Lee's alleged witness tampering, as the arrest warrant for Kim, requested by the prosecution in March, contained indications of such conduct.

At that time, the prosecution applied three charges against Kim: ▲ receiving money from Chairman Jeong as a bribe for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project alongside Lee and former secretary Jeong (bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes), ▲ committing perjury as a witness at Lee's election law violation trial at Lee's request while assisting Chairman Jeong, and ▲ subsequently arranging deliveries to Seongnam City and receiving money from companies by lobbying former secretary Jeong.

The prosecution alleges that Lee appeared at the trial related to the 'prosecutor impersonation case' and asked Kim to provide favorable testimony. Kim, at Lee's request, testified as a witness on February 14, 2019, at the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch during Lee's public election law violation trial, taking the oath but either not knowing or not recalling whether there was such an agreement or atmosphere, and testified to the effect that "there was an agreement or atmosphere to withdraw the complaint against Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit between Kim Byung-ryang and KBS during the prosecutor impersonation case."

During a search and seizure, the prosecution reportedly secured a file recording multiple phone calls from Lee to Kim from December 2018, in which Lee repeatedly asked Kim to appear as a witness at the trial, confirming such circumstances.

Lee's side stated, "Lee did not instruct Kim to commit perjury but merely requested testimony."

Lee's side clarified, "Lee Jae-myung's request for Kim, who is detained, to testify regarding the Baekhyeon-dong project was related to a separate election law trial unrelated to the Baekhyeon-dong project during his tenure as Governor of Gyeonggi Province, and it was a request to 'testify truthfully,' not a demand for perjury."

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