Arrest warrants issued for SBW group chairmen

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Arrest warrants issued for SBW group chairmen

Published: 17 Aug. 2022, 17:39

Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jae-myung speaks at a party leadership campaign event at Jeonbuk National University in Jeonju, North Jeolla on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Prosecutors on Tuesday obtained arrest warrants for the former and current chairmen of a minor conglomerate who are suspected of paying Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker Lee Jae-Myung's legal fees when he was tried for violating election law in 2018.

The two men — former SBW Group Chairman Kim Seong-tae and current Chairman Yang Seon-gil — are out of Korea and have refused to cooperate with prosecutors' investigation into a separate case of alleged embezzlement of company funds and breach of trust, according to officials who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity.

Kim left the country in June 2021, a month after he retired from the chairmanship, while Yang has been living abroad since before Kim's departure. Kim is still believed to be in charge of major decision-making at the conglomerate, according to prosecution officials.

The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office sought arrest warrants for the two men after they refused to return to Korea for questioning in the embezzlement case.

With arrest warrants for Kim and Yang in hand, prosecutors intend to seek an Interpol red notice, a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and arrest a person currently outside the country.

Prosecutors also intend to ask the Foreign Ministry to void the two men's passports and request their extradition to Korea.

If the men are successfully extradited, prosecutors also intend to question them about allegations that SBW Group paid off Lee's legal fees when he was being prosecuted for violating the election law in 2018. Lee was acquitted of that charge by the Supreme Court in 2020.

Lee's lawyer, Lee Tae-hyung, allegedly received 300 million won ($228,000) from SBW Group during the trial process, and another 2 billion won in SBW stock that he could sell after three years.

Yang is also known to have made significant contributions to Lee's presidential campaign last year, the exact details of which remain unknown.

Lee is currently running for the chairmanship of the Democratic Party (DP), having won a by-election to represent Incheon's Gyeyang District B constituency in the June local government elections.

As such, he is immune to summons for questioning by investigators without the consent of the National Assembly, even if he is implicated in the course of the investigation into SBW Group's chairmen.

Lee also faces allegations that he had a hand in the lopsided profit design of the scandal-ridden Daejang-dong residential development during his tenure as Seongnam mayor, which delivered disproportionate profits to a previously little-known asset management company. He and his wife are also the subject of an ongoing probe into her use of his government-issued corporate credit card for personal errands when he was Gyeonggi governor.

Lee has denied all of the allegations in those probes, although his former aide Yoo Dong-gyu and other acquaintances have been arrested in the Daejang-dong case.

While the state prosecution service has shown no signs of delaying or slowing down its investigations in the aftermath of Lee's election, probes into sitting lawmakers or summons for questioning are complicated by parliamentary privileges.

The Constitution stipulates that sitting lawmakers cannot be arrested without the consent of their fellow lawmakers unless they are caught at the scene of a crime, and merely summoning a sitting lawmaker for questioning is no easy feat.

"In my experience, it is almost impossible to summon a lawmaker once the National Assembly is in session," said a senior prosecutor who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]