Lee Jae-myung's aide indicted for taking bribes

Kim Yong [YONHAP]

Prosecutors on Tuesday indicted a close aide to Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Lee Jae-myung on charges of taking more than 800 million won ($577,000) in bribes from land developers linked to the controversial Daejang-dong development project.

In the indictment, prosecutors accused the aide, Kim Yong, of using the kickbacks to fund Lee’s failed presidential election.

Kim, 55, deputy head of the DP-affiliated think tank Institute for Democracy, has been accused of taking 847 million won in bribes from a lawmaker, Nam Wook, who is a private investor in the Daejang-dong development project.

Nam is believed to have transferred the money to Jeong Min-yong, the former head of the Seongnam Development Corporation’s strategic project office, and Yoo Dong-gyu, who was the company’s planning director.

Nam, Jeong and Yoo were also indicted Tuesday for illegally providing and receiving political funds.

Prosecutors believe that Kim used the kickbacks in Lee’s presidential campaign because the transactions took place on four occasions from April to August 2021 when the DP was holding its presidential primary.

Kim originally planned to take 2 billion won, prosecutors say, but ended up with only 847 million won after local media began reporting on the Daejang-dong scandal late last year.

When Kim allegedly received the bribes, he was deputy chief of Lee’s primary campaign’s general headquarters, overseeing finances.

In October 2021, Lee was chosen as the DP’s presidential candidate. From November 2021 to March 2022, Kim served as deputy chief of the general headquarters at the DP’s central election headquarters.

Lee ultimately lost to Yoon Suk-yeol on March 9 by the smallest margin in Korean history.

After the defeat, Lee, a former mayor of Seongnam city and governor of Gyeonggi province, was elected chairman of the liberal DP.

While Kim has denied all bribery allegations and accused prosecutors of pressing charges against him without any evidence, prosecutors have told local reporters that they found memos, bags and parking records that support their allegations.

Prosecutors said they were also planning to zero in on allegations that Kim received 100 million won in bribes and extravagant gifts from Yoo in 2014, as Lee was about to run for a second term as Seongnam mayor.

The DP on Tuesday slammed prosecutors and the Yoon administration for seeking “political revenge” against the DP and the former liberal Moon Jae-in government, saying that prosecutors were targeting Lee and his aides to hurt the party.

In a meeting with the party’s leadership on Monday, Lee said it was time to focus all resources on conducting a special probe into the Itaewon crowd surge, which claimed 156 lives.

A DP lawmaker who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on the condition of anonymity this week said the DP was attempting to score political points with the Itaewon special probe by zeroing in on the incompetence of the Yoon administration and its botched handling of the tragedy.

A national state of mourning officially ended last Saturday.

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