Prosecutors, “Kim Yong Pressed Yoo Dong-kyu for Money When Kim Man-bae Refused to Provide Campaign Funds for Presidential Primary”

Journalists wait in front of the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul. Kim Chang-gil

In a document of criminal charges against Kim Yong, vice president of the Institute for Democracy--a think tank affiliated to the Democratic Party of Korea (DP)--prosecutors wrote that Kim pressed former director of the Seongnam Development Corporation (SDC) Yoo Dong-kyu (Yoo Dong-gyu) for money to fund Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung’s bid in the presidential primary. Prosecutors charged Kim with receiving illegal campaign funds. They believe that attorney Nam Wook, a developer in the Daejang-dong project, asked Kim Yong for business favors and that Kim accepted the request. Kim fiercely denied the allegation saying, “I will stop the prosecutors from writing fiction.”

According to the document drawn up by the Anti-corruption Investigation Division 3 (chief prosecutor Kang Baek-sin) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which the Kyunghyang Shinmun obtained on November 10, the prosecutors believed that Kim, Yoo, and Jeong Jin-sang, the director of political affairs in the DP leader’s office, had first expected to receive profits from the Daejang-dong development project from Kim Man-bae, the largest shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, an asset management company, to fund Lee Jae-myung’s campaign in the presidential primary.

According to the document, the men asked Kim Man-bae for profits from the Daejang-dong project on several occasions from September 2020 to February 2021. Yoo and attorney Jeong Min-yong (former head of strategic projects at SDC) even prepared four ways to receive money from Kim Man-bae.

According to the prosecutors, Kim Man-bae admitted that 24.5% of the Daejang-dong shares belonged to Kim Yong, Yoo Dong-kyu and Jeong Jin-sang and promised to give them 42.8 billion won. But he never made the payment. Kim Man-bae claimed he was looking for a specific payment method that would not cause any legal issues.

The prosecutors believe that when Kim Man-bae failed to hand over the money for Lee Jae-myung’s campaign even in February-March 2021, a year before the presidential election, Kim Yong repeatedly asked Yoo for the money. The document stated that Kim Yong demanded funds for Lee’s campaign explaining that he was touring Gwangju and the southern regions as head of organization in Lee’s preliminary presidential campaign and that they needed money. The prosecutors think that Yoo delivered Kim’s request to Nam, asking him to prepare the funds.

Nam accepted Yoo’s request and said he would provide the funds. In exchange he asked for special favors in the relocation of the powder magazine unit in Bakdal-dong, Anyang and for approval to establish a real estate trust company through Kim Yong and Jeong Jin-sang if Lee Jae-myung became president, according to the prosecutor’s document. The document went on to state, “Yoo delivered Nam’s demands to Kim Yong and told him that Nam would prepare the funds for the primary campaign, and Kim accepted.”

The prosecutors did not name Lee Jae-myung as an accomplice, but his name was mentioned 57 times and Jeong Jin-sang’s name appeared 24 times in the document. On November 9, the day after the prosecutors arrested Kim Yong, they conducted a search and seizure of Jeong’s residence and office. They are searching for a link between the allegations against these two men and Lee Jae-myung.

Kim Yong released a statement on Friday and argued, “The charges are absolutely not true, but false.” Kim said, “I was never involved in the Daejang-dong project, and I have never provided special favors to a private developer or agreed to share profits.” He continued and said, “I never told Yoo to prepare campaign funds or received money from him.” He further said, “The prosecutors arrested and charged an innocent man based on Yoo’s statement alone,” and added, “Since it never happened, naturally there is no objective and concrete evidence. This is the fate of an investigation conducted with the conclusion predetermined.”

Jeong also released a statement and said, “The prosecutorial government’s witch-hunt will fail, and eventually Lee Jae-myung’s innocence will be revealed.” He also said, “The prosecutors are creating a crime that does not exist by repeating a lie often enough so that it becomes the truth. But lies cannot defeat the truth.” “I can definitely say that I have never received any kind of illicit money, and I have never devised an illegal conspiracy,” he continued and added, “The promise of 48.2 billion won and the talk about a reservoir are simply a false argument they devised and are completely groundless.”