[앵커]
When KBS obtained and looked at the primary accounting report of presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, there were several names of incumbent executives Ssangbangbul among the high-paid sponsors.
Ssang Bul-Bul is a place where opposition parties are raising suspicions that they paid for Lee’s lawyer’s fees.
Earlier, Candidate Lee said that the allegation itself was absurd, and the supporters also drew a line saying “support at the individual level”.
[리포트]
This is the details of the campaign donations for Candidate Jae-myung Lee, which KBS received by requesting the disclosure of information from the National Election Commission.
The legal limit of 2.5 billion won was met.
Of these, 23 people whose names were revealed by sponsoring more than 5 million won are diverse, including self-employed people, hospital directors, and sports leaders.
However, as a result of the confirmation, four of them were incumbent executives of SsangBul Group.
Three people donated on the day the fundraising started, and the other donated over two days the next day.
All of them donated the maximum amount of KRW 10 million, which accounts for 18% of the total amount of large donations.
Ssang Bul-Bul is a place where the people’s power and others have raised suspicions that Lee paid his attorney’s fees on behalf of Lee during the trial for violating the Public Official Election Act in 2018, and Lee said that it was absurd.
We asked the sponsors about the circumstances.
[A 씨/쌍방울 계열사 대표/음성변조 : “(김혜경 씨와) 동기 동창이라서요. (초등학교요?) 네네. 전 후보님만 모르고 (이 후보) 처남이랑 연락도 자주하고 친한 동생이라서…”]
Other executives also explained, “I have supported it since the days of Seongnam Mayor”, “It has nothing to do with the company”, and “I did it with personal money.”
Ssang Bul-Bul also revealed that it was a personal sponsorship unrelated to the company.
[쌍방울그룹 관계자/음성변조 : “(공교롭게도 (기부) 날짜가 같은 부분이 있으니까…) 서로가 서로 기부한 내역을 몰랐어요. ‘날짜가 겹친답니다’라고 하니 (기부하신 분도) ‘누가 냈어요?’라고 질문을 하신 걸 보면….”]
In the accounting report, the name of a lawyer named Lee Mo, who was accused by a civic group, saying that he received a convertible bond in return for accepting the case of Lee, also appears.
I had donated 10 million won, but a month later, I got 9 million won back.
He also served as an outside director of SsangBulle’s affiliates until last January.
I tried to ask this lawyer about the sponsorship and return, but I couldn’t get in touch.
Regarding this, the candidate’s side said, “The nature of the sponsorship and the nature of the donation are unknown due to the nature of the fundraiser.”
This is Jang Hyuk-jin from KBS News.
Cinematographer: Bae Jeong-cheol Kim Seong-hyeon / CG: Ko Seok-hyun / Video Editing: Kim Eun-joo
