Anti-Corruption Commission Refers Former Secretary General to Police Over Closure of "Kim Gunhee Luxury Handbag Case"

Commission's Task Force Announces Results of Normalization Initiative

"Jeong Seung-yoon, Former Secretary General, Deliberately Delayed the Case"

Unofficial Late-Night Meeting Held with Yoon Suk-yeol

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has referred Jeong Seung-yoon, former Secretary General of the commission, to the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency for investigation, after he concluded with no violations in the "luxury handbag bribery case" involving Kim Gunhee, wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol. It was revealed that Jeong had held an unofficial late-night meeting with former President Yoon.

On May 8, the commission announced the results of its Task Force (TF) for normalization, which included these findings. The commission concluded that during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, Jeong had deliberately delayed the handling of Kim's luxury handbag case. There was also evidence that Jeong added content such as "judgment reserved" and "request for additional supplementation"—which were not initially included—to the resolution document that, in principle, should have been prepared by the department in charge of the case.

Kim Gun-hee, who was arrested and indicted on charges including stock price manipulation of Deutsch Motors, interference in the nomination of Myung Tae-gyun, and bribery related to the Unification Church, attended the final trial for violation of the Capital Markets Act held last December at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Joint Press Corps

Notably, it was discovered that Jeong had an unofficial late-night meeting with former President Yoon, the subject of the complaint, at the presidential residence during the case review process. The TF viewed these matters as highly likely to constitute violations of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.

According to the TF's investigation, Jeong had decided in advance to close the case before it was brought to the full commission meeting. He instructed that the agenda be delivered to the commissioners only the day before the meeting, and two hours prior to the meeting, he convened an unofficial meeting with senior officials, including political appointees and standing commissioners, to discuss the intended direction (closure) of the case.

A commission official explained, "We requested statements from the individuals involved regarding various suspicions via certified mail and other means, but it was difficult to confirm the facts due to refusal of receipt and other reasons. Therefore, we decided to refer the case to the National Office of Investigation."

In addition, regarding the "civil complaint manipulation" allegation involving Ryu Hee-rim, former Chairman of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, it was found that although the department in charge reported an opinion to forward the matter to a third agency (Audit and Inspection Board or Prosecutors' Office), Jeong rejected this recommendation. Furthermore, as Ryu failed to fulfill his obligation to report private interests, the commission decided to request an audit by the Audit and Inspection Board.

The TF also confirmed that Yoo Cheol-hwan, former chairman of the commission, provided specific instructions on how to handle a matter after receiving a solicitation from a petitioner. Accordingly, the commission plans to file a report with investigative authorities against Yoo as well.

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