Lee Jae-myung Orders "Decide on Seongnam FC Operation After Consulting Jeong Jin-sang"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, gave a court testimony stating that while serving as mayor of Seongnam and owner of Seongnam FC, he instructed that "the overall club operations were entrusted to Jeong Jin-sang, Seongnam City Policy Chief, so from now on, decisions should be made in consultation with Chief Jeong."

Jung Jin-sang, former Chief of Political Coordination Office at the Democratic Party of Korea Party Leader's Office Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on the 2nd, lawyer Kwak Seon-woo, who served as CEO of Seongnam FC, appeared as a witness at a trial held on the 30th of last month at the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch, 1st Criminal Division (Presiding Judge Kang Dong-won), and revealed this. Lawyer Kwak was the CEO of Seongnam FC in 2015. At that time, Seongnam FC had sponsorship contracts with several companies, and there are suspicions that illegal quid pro quo relationships existed during that period.

On that day, the court conducted the first witness examination procedure for eight defendants, including Doosan Construction, former executives of Naver, and former Seongnam city officials, who were indicted on charges including bribery related to the Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations.

During the main examination, the prosecution presented Kwak’s previous statements to the prosecution as evidence and asked, "Have you ever met Lee Jae-myung, the mayor of Seongnam and the club owner?" Kwak replied, "I don’t remember the exact time, but after accepting the CEO position, Chief Jeong arranged a meeting in the mayor’s office. At that meeting, Mayor Lee said, 'I have entrusted the club operations to Chief Jeong. From now on, make decisions in consultation with Chief Jeong.'

When the prosecution asked again, "Did you report to Chief Jeong regarding club operations and then execute club-related matters after receiving his approval?" Kwak answered, "Yes, I sought Chief Jeong’s consent first."

The prosecution also inquired about the circumstances of his appointment as CEO and the reporting system within the club. When asked, "Is it true that Chief Jeong, who had no official position in the club, proposed the CEO position to you?" Kwak said, "Yes, Chief Jeong acted as the representative of the club owner."

Regarding the main decision-making process during his tenure as club CEO, Kwak stated, "The authority for important decisions was held by Jeong Jin-sang, the city policy chief. For major matters, the club’s marketing director (the successor CEO) and the management planning director reported directly to Chief Jeong, bypassing me. Later, thinking this was problematic, I suggested improvements to the Seongnam FC reporting system by emailing Mayor Lee, stating that the person contacting Chief Jeong should be unified as the CEO."

When the prosecution asked, "Although you were the CEO, you testified during the investigation and in court that you were not involved in or specifically informed about Seongnam FC securing tens of billions of won in sponsorship funds from companies such as Doosan Construction, Naver, and Cha Hospital. Is that correct?" he answered, "Yes."

The prosecution believes that during the Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations, Mayor Lee and Chief Jeong conspired, and the city’s strategic promotion team leader carried out practical roles under their instructions.

Meanwhile, the court sentenced former Seongnam FC executive Park Mo, who was tried together on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, to a fine of 3 million won as requested by the prosecution during the sentencing hearing that day. Park was indicted for allegedly having 12 Seongnam FC employees make lump-sum payments of 1.35 million won to the support committee account of then-candidate Lee during the Democratic Party presidential primary in February 2017.

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