DP HQ raided again in Seongnam land scandal

Prosecutors leave the Democratic Party's headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, after completing a raid of the office Jeong Jin-sang, DP chief Lee Jae-myung’s close aide, Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Prosecutors raided the headquarters of the Democratic Party (DP) and residence of a close associate of DP chief Lee Jae-myung in a bribery-land development scandal on Wednesday.

Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office searched the residence of Jeong Jin-sang, a vice chief of staff to Lee, to find evidence related to bribery and corruption allegations.

A dozen investigators also searched Jeong's office in the DP headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul Wednesday morning. They were initially blocked by DP members at around 8:30 a.m. but successfully entered around 12:30 p.m. after reaching an agreement on the scope of the search and in the presence of a lawyer.

DP officials claimed there was no evidence related to Jeong in the headquarters, but let prosecutors in to check. Prosecutors left the headquarters after three hours at around 3:15 p.m.

Prosecutors also tried to search Lee’s secretariat office at the National Assembly, and alerted National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, according to custom.

Kim was said to have requested the prosecution to collect evidence through voluntary submissions “taking into consideration the symbolism of the National Assembly headquarters,” an indirect rejection of a raid.

Jeong is accused of taking around 140 million won ($101,973) in kickbacks from real estate developers related to the Daejang-dong land development scandal in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, between 2013 and 2020 in violation of the Anticorruption Act and Act of Aggravated Punishment for Specific Economic Crimes.

The Daejang-dong land development scandal centers on allegations that an obscure and small private asset management company, Hwacheon Daeyu, and its affiliates reaped exponential profits from the 2015 project, which was during Lee's time as Seongnam's mayor.

Prosecutors have expanded investigations into whether close associates of Lee accepted bribes from the land developers and used them for Lee’s presidential campaign, including his primary race. Lee was ultimately defeated in the presidential election in March.

Prosecutors are looking into whether Jeong, the head of the political affairs coordination office at Lee’s secretariat, accepted business favors from the developers.

According to testimony from key suspects, including lawyer Nam Wook and former acting president of Seongnam Development Corporation Yoo Dong-gyu, Jeong is said to have received 50 million won ahead of the 2014 local election, when Lee ran for reelection as mayor of Seongnam, and 40 million won in 2020 when Lee was Gyeonggi governor.

Jeong is also accused of having received tens of thousands of won from 2013 to 2014, during his time as a policy secretary for the Seongnam city government, and in 2019, while he was chief of the policy office in the Gyeonggi provincial government. He is also suspected of having received expensive gifts of holidays, alcohol and entertainment services from Nam and others.

Prosecutors suspect Jeong leaked real estate development information he obtained while working for the Seongnam city and the Gyeonggi provincial governments to the real estate developers, including Nam, helping them to cash in.

On Tuesday, prosecutors indicted another close ally of Lee’s, Kim Yong, deputy head of the DP-affiliated think tank Institute for Democracy, on charges of taking more than 847 million won in bribes linked to the scandal. Prosecutors accused Kim of using the kickbacks to fund Lee’s presidential election.

Prosecutors say that Jeong and Kim were close since Lee’s election as Seongnam mayor in 2010.

Jeong is also suspected of having attempted to silence Yoo Dong-gyu, another key suspect in the scandal, ahead of a prosecution raid of Yoo's home in September 2021. Yoo claimed in a recent media interview that he was instructed to throw his mobile phone out the window by Jeong.

Jeong has denied the allegations against him.

DP lawmakers on Wednesday called the raid a “political show” and “political oppression.”

“I don't know if there’s really an investigation, or if they're trying to put on a public show,” Lee Jae-myung said in a DP supreme council meeting Wednesday.

Park Jung-ha, a spokesman for the People Power Party (PPP), accused the DP of “blocking the prosecution and obstructing the legitimate execution of its official duties.”

This marks the third time the DP headquarters was raided in connection with the scandal surrounding Lee’s aides. Prosecutors tried to raid the building on Oct. 19 in their probe of Kim Yong but were blocked by party members. They succeeded on another attempt on Oct. 24 after a five-hour confrontation.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]