Lee Myung-bak loses suit over sale of his Gangnam house

Former President Lee Myung-bak’s residence in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam District, southern Seoul [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court rejected former President Lee Myung-bak’s appeal against the Korea Asset Management Corporation’s selling of his residence in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

Legal sources told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday that the highest court made the decision last Friday, effectively upholding decisions by two lower courts that allowed his house to be sold to pay court-ordered fines.

The 80-year-old former president, whose term was from 2008 to 2013, has been serving a 17-year sentence for embezzlement and bribery. In late June, Lee’s jail sentence was suspended for three months over health concerns.

In April 2018, when Lee was indicted on charges of bribery, prosecutors asked the court to deter him from selling any assets that were believed to have been purchased using the bribes he took, including his luxurious house in Gangnam.

The court accepted the request.

In October 2020, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s 17-year sentence and ordered Lee to pay 13 billion won ($9.7 million won) in fines and forfeit 5.78 billion won.

Prosecutors asked the Korea Asset Management Corporation to sell Lee’s house in a public auction, and in July 2021, half the ownership of the house plus the land it’s on was sold for about 11.16 billion won.

Lee and his wife took the case to court in two separate lawsuits: one asking for the nullification of the sale and another to revoke the Korea Asset Management Corporation’s very decision to sell the house.

On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Lee's appeal.

The second lawsuit is still pending. The Seoul High Court originally planned to hand down a ruling on Wednesday, but announced that it would be delayed.

Lee was found guilty of embezzling 25.2 billion won from DAS, an auto parts company that prosecutors claimed was a conduit through which the former president amassed funds for his political and personal activities. DAS was legally registered in the name of his elder brother, Lee Sang-eun, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that Lee was its actual owner.

Lee was also convicted of taking bribes from Samsung through DAS in return for issuing a presidential pardon to its late chairman, Lee Kun-hee. Former President Lee was found guilty of taking about 8.9 billion won from Samsung in 2009.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]