Lawmaker appears for questioning over DP cash-for-votes scandal

Rep. Lee Sung-man arrives at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on Friday for questioning over his alleged role in the Democratic Party's cash-for-votes scandal. [YONHAP]

Rep. Lee Sung-man appeared for questioning at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on Friday over his alleged involvement in a cash-for-votes scandal that is one of several controversies that have engulfed the liberal Democratic Party (DP) in recent weeks.

Lee, now an independent, is the first lawmaker to be questioned by prosecutors in their investigation into accusations that allies of former DP leader Song Young-gil distributed bribes to party members and lawmakers to support his successful party leadership bid ahead of the DP’s national convention in 2021.

Prosecutors suspect that Song’s aides distributed envelopes of cash totaling 94 million won ($70,475) to party members, including up to 20 lawmakers, to shore up support for his candidacy.

Lee quit the DP earlier this month after the allegations surfaced. He is accused of being involved in distributing 9 million won to the chiefs of the Song campaign’s regional chapters.

Lee has denied the allegations and accused the state prosecution service of fabricating the allegations against him.

"I will subject myself to the probe faithfully and without evasion, but I will also thoroughly go over the facts at hand," Lee told reporters upon his arrival at the prosecutors’ office in southern Seoul, adding that he will prove his innocence through the investigation.

Prosecutors honed in on Lee as a suspect in the scandal after they obtained a recording of a phone conversation taken around the time of the party convention where Lee Jung-geun, the DP’s then-secretary general, can be heard thanking the lawmaker for delivering money to unnamed recipients.

Lee has claimed that the recording is composed of several different conversations that took place on March 30 and May 3, 2021, that have been edited and combined in order to incriminate him.

Earlier this month, prosecutors arrested Kang Rae-gu, a member of the audit committee for the state water agency K-water and a former official in Song’s election campaign.

Kang is accused of collecting about 80 million won from various businesspeople that were allegedly handed out to party members in envelopes, as well as of accepting a 3-million-won bribe from a businessman who sought business favors tied to K-water facilities.

Kang is also accused of helping to distribute envelopes of cash to the chiefs of the Song campaign’s regional chapters.

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