Top court upholds conviction of lobbyist in Baekhyeon-dong development scandal

Home > National > Politics

Top court upholds conviction of lobbyist in Baekhyeon-dong development scandal

Published: 28 Nov. 2024, 15:53

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Kim In-seob, who served as Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung's policy campaign chief when he was running for Seongnam mayor, attends his sentencing hearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 13. [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a lobbyist involved in a major corruption scandal surrounding a development project in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, that took off during liberal Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung's term as the city's mayor.

In its verdict, the Supreme Court confirmed the five-year prison sentence handed down by both a trial and appellate court to Kim In-seob, who was charged with accepting 7.7 billion won ($5.8 million) and other benefits from a private developer in return for helping the company secure policy favors related to Seongnam’s Baekhyeon-dong residential development project.

Kim, who served as the policy chief on Lee’s first mayoral campaign in 2006, was also ordered to forfeit 6.35 billion won.

According to prosecutors, Kim helped the developer secure the exclusive right to develop a 111,265 square-meter (27 acre) plot of land after lobbying Lee and the Seongnam municipal government to rezone the area, allowing apartments to be built there.

Prosecutors have alleged that Kim’s involvement in the project began in 2014 and lasted until March last year.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that the appellate court had “made no errors of judgment” regarding the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, under which Kim was charged with acting as an illegal intermediary on behalf of the developer.

Kim’s conviction wraps up one thread in the wide-ranging corruption scandal surrounding the Baekhyeon-dong and Daejang-dong developments that has dogged Lee for years.

Prosecutors have indicted Lee on charges of breach of trust in both Seongnam developments, arguing that he caused the city-owned developer 20 billion won in losses by excluding it from the Baekhyeon-dong project and skewed the profit distribution scheme of the Daejang-dong development to favor minor investors.

The case is one of five criminal cases where the DP leader is currently facing trial, including an election law violation case where the Seoul Central District Court handed Lee a suspended one-year prison sentence after finding him guilty of violating election law by making false statements during his 2022 presidential run.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung leaves the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, after attending his first trial on election law violation case on Nov. 15. The court handed Lee a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years. [CHOI GI-UNG]

A final prison sentence or a fine of 1 million won for violating election law would strip Lee of his seat in the National Assembly as well as his right to run in elections for the next five years.

Both Lee and prosecutors have filed appeals in the case.

Lee has been separately indicted of third-party bribery and violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act during his gubernatorial term by allegedly paying North Korea a total of $8 million through intermediaries from 2019 to 2020.

He was also indicted on charges of misappropriating public funds from the Gyeonggi provincial government earlier this month.

Lee has denied all of the charges and characterized the criminal investigations against him as a political witch hunt orchestrated by the Yoon Seok Yeol administration to destroy his political career.

As Lee is the DP’s flagbearer, the outcome of his criminal cases are likely to affect the party’s prospects for winning back the presidency in 2027.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]