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Court upholds five-year prison sentence for DP leader's former aide

Published: 06 Feb. 2025, 15:08 Updated: 06 Feb. 2025, 15:09

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Kim Yong, a former deputy head of the Democratic Party-affiliated think tank Institute for Democracy, center, attends a court ruling at the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, western Seoul, on Feb. 6. [NEWS1]

A court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s sentence of five years in prison for Kim Yong, a close aide to Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung, on charges of bribery and illegal political fundraising linked to the controversial Daejang-dong development project.

Kim, the former deputy head of the DP-affiliated think tank Institute for Democracy, was indicted in November 2022 on charges of taking 847 million won ($654,000) in illegal political funds from lawyer Nam Wook, a private investor and major stakeholder in the Daejang-dong development scheme led by then-Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung.

The Seoul High Court upheld the lower court’s five-year prison sentence, with a fine of 70 million won and a surcharge of 67 million won.

Kim was accused of receiving the funds from Nam on four occasions from April to August 2021 after colluding with lawyer Jeong Min-yong, the former head of the Seongnam Development Corporation (SDC)’s strategic project office, and Yoo Dong-gyu, the company’s former planning director.

The funds are believed to have been used to finance Lee’s failed presidential election.

Kim was also indicted on a charge of accepting 190 million won in bribes from Yoo between 2013 and 2014, linked to the land development project and establishing the SDC.

Kim was arrested immediately after the sentence was given Thursday.

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. DP leader Lee was the mayor of Seongnam when the project began.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]