Prosecutors Conduct Search of Former Press Union Chairman... Allegations of Bribery After Interview with Kim Man-bae (Comprehensive)

The prosecution launched a forced investigation on the 1st after detecting circumstances involving former Press Union Chairman Shin Hak-rim, who allegedly gave a false interview regarding the Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management major shareholder Kim Man-bae and President Yoon Seok-yeol's alleged cover-up of the Busan Savings Bank case investigation, and received money in return.

Major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, Kim Man-bae [Photo by Yonhap News]

The Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 3 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kang Baek-shin) conducted searches at two locations, including Shin's residence and office, in connection with charges of breach of trust, bribery, and violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act against the former chairman.

Shin is suspected of giving a false interview with Kim, claiming that President Yoon, during his time as a prosecutor, covered up the investigation of Jo Woo-hyung, a 'loan broker' of Busan Savings Bank. The interview content became public when Newstapa released it on March 6 last year, three days before the 20th presidential election.

At that time, Newstapa disclosed a 1 hour and 12 minutes audio recording of a conversation between Kim and his acquaintance Shin in September 2021, when the Daejang-dong scandal broke out. The file and report included Kim stating that in 2011, during the Busan Savings Bank investigation, he introduced former Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo to President Yoon, who was then the head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Division 2, at the request of Jo. Kim said in the audio file, "I introduced someone who could get through."

Kim also said during the prosecution's investigation of Jo, "Yoon Seok-yeol said, 'Are you Jo Woo-hyung?'..." and added, "(The chief prosecutor) gave Jo coffee, did a few things, and then let him go. So that case disappeared," and "It worked, he just let it slide."

Based on this, Lee Jae-myung, then a presidential candidate and leader of the Democratic Party, aggressively questioned President Yoon during a TV debate, asking, "Why did you make coffee for Jo Woo-hyung?"

However, Jo testified during a prosecution investigation in November 2021 that the only prosecutor he met when he appeared at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Division was Prosecutor Park. Jo is also known to have testified in a recent investigation that in September 2021, he received a phone call from Kim asking for understanding, saying, "Yoon Seok-yeol will say he made coffee for you."

The prosecution believes that Shin received hundreds of millions of won from Kim as compensation for the false interview. After analyzing the seized materials, the prosecution plans to summon Shin as a suspect for questioning. Shin served as chairman of the National Press Union from 2003 to 2007 and was CEO of Media Today from 2013 to 2016.

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