Prosecution Service, “94 Million Won Was Delivered to People Including 10-20 Democratic Party Legislators to Get Song Young-gil Elected”

Yoon Kwan-suk, chair of the parliamentary Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups Committee drinks water during a session at the National Assembly on April 13. Bak Min-gyu, Senior Reporter

The Prosecution Service, which is investigating allegations of illegal political funds connected to the Democratic Party of Korea’s convention, specified the amount of money that was handed out in the election for party leader, 94 million won, in a search warrant for legislator Yoon Kwan-suk. The prosecutors did not state in the warrant the names of the lawmakers who received the money, but wrote that 10-20 lawmakers were involved. The prosecutors announced that they would investigate the people who received bribes as well as those that provided them, so dozens of unidentified legislators and superdelegates of the Democratic Party are expected to be subject to the investigation.

According to the search warrant on lawmaker Yoon issued to Anti-corruption Investigation Division 2 (chief prosecutor Gim Yeong-cheol) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which the Kyunghyang Shinmun obtained on April 14, the prosecutors stated that 94 million won went to Democratic Party lawmakers and the heads of local headquarters in Song Young-gil’s campaign for party leader ahead of the Democratic Party convention in May 2021. The prosecutors listed nine people as suspects in the warrant, including lawmaker Yoon and Lee Sung-man, Kang Rae-gu (chair of the Institute of Internal Auditors Korea), and Lee Jung-geun (former deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Party).

The prosecutors wrote that Yoon Kwan-suk instructed and advised Kang on the need to give money to the lawmakers in order to maintain support for Song on April 24, 2021, and that Kang came up with 30 million won in cash with the help of an acquaintance. Later, Bak, the aide to former leader Song, handed Lee ten envelopes with three million won each. Lee gave them to Yoon, and Yoon handed them out to ten legislators. The prosecutors said Yoon gave 60 million won to twenty lawmakers after adding the additional envelopes that were handed out.

As for the chiefs of the local headquarters, the prosecutors believe money was handed out after Kang suggested and gave directions to pay cash to the people overseeing local headquarters so they could use the money to win over national superdelegates and party members with voting rights in early March 2021. Lee, who obtained the funds from his acquaintances, placed 500,000 won in each envelope and delivered them to the chiefs of the local headquarters, according to the warrant. The prosecutors said that nine million won was handed to ten local headquarter chiefs on March 30, 2021 and five million won to seven people around April 11.

The prosecutors believe they began handing money to the heads of local situation rooms after Kang again advised that they provide cash to encourage active campaigning. The prosecutors stated that 10 million won was delivered to twenty heads of local situation rooms twice at the end of April 2021. Earlier, legislator Yoon Kwan-suk accused the prosecutors of conducting an irrational and planned investigation to oppress the opposition party and executing a reckless search and seizure. He released his position saying, “I clearly announce that I have nothing to do with the allegations about envelopes full of cash.”

The prosecutors argued that the latest case was a violation of the Political Parties Act and the Political Funds Act. The Political Parties Act stipulates punishment for providing or receiving bribes to get a certain person elected as party leader, as well as for instructing, recommending, demanding, and arranging such activities. The Political Funds Act states punishment on political funds received through means not designated in this law.