Former Minister Nominee Kim Seung-hee Paid Employee's Pension Insurance Bill with Political Funds

Former United Future Party (current People Power Party) lawmaker Kim Seung-hee, who failed to enter office after being nominated for minister of health and welfare following allegations of her violation of the Political Funds Act. Kim Chang-gil

It turns out that Kim Seung-hee, former United Future Party (current People Power Party) lawmaker and health and welfare minister nominee who failed to enter the ministerial office after allegedly violating the Political Funds Act used political funds to pay for the pension insurance bill of her staff in the National Assembly. Prosecutors submitted a summary indictment requesting a fine for Kim, and the court, on its authority, sent the case to a formal trial.

According to the indictment that the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ki Dong-min obtained from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, Kim used her political funds to pay for the pension insurance bill of an employee in her parliamentary office. The employee was supposed to pay the bill, which is usually deducted from the salary.

In September 2017, the former lawmaker ordered A to hire an employee for a monthly wage of 2 million won. In order to meet the 2-million-won monthly wage, A told the lawmaker that he would pay for the worker’s share of the pension insurance bill with political funds. Prosecutors believe the lawmaker approved after receiving A’s report. An investigation showed that Kim spent nearly 360,000 won of political funds to make pension insurance payments over three occasions.

Kim Seung-hee rented and used a Genesis G80 from March 2017 until May 2020 for parliamentary activities and then purchased the vehicle, but she is suspected of paying for the deposit with political funds. She paid a deposit of nearly 18.6 million won with political funds when she signed the vehicle lease agreement, and when she purchased the car, she only paid for the difference after excluding the prepaid deposit.

Kim also spent over 160,000 won of political funds to pay the insurance bill of a Grandeur owned by her spouse. She used her husband’s car for parliamentary activities, then started renting the Genesis from March 2017, yet she continued to pay the insurance bill for the Grandeur with political funds from March to July that year. She is suspected of using political funds to pay a 3.5-million-won bill for repairs to the Grandeur in March 2020 and of instructing her staff to make a false accounting report claiming the Genesis had dents removed and was repainted.

The National Election Commission requested the Prosecution Service for an investigation into the alleged violation of the Political Funds Act. Former lawmaker Kim argued, “It was a problem caused by an error at the working-level in the accounting process.” The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office later submitted a summary indictment requesting a 3-million-won fine for Kim, but last month, the Seoul Southern District Court sent the case to a formal trial.

A representative of the Prosecution Service spoke on the summary indictment seeking a 3-million-won fine for this case and said, “In the past, there were cases where the court imposed fines smaller than 3 million won, even though they involved a bigger amount of political funds than in the case of former lawmaker Kim,” and added, “We were not lenient on her, but rather, we followed the sentencing guidelines.”