A report came out that Mr. Hong, a high-ranking official at the media, had a monetary transaction worth more than 5 billion won with Kim Man-bae, former Deputy Director of Money Today, the largest shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu.
According to a report by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 29th, Mr. Hong has borrowed money from Mr. Kim by using a loan for a total of three times since around 2019. 2019 is when Hwacheon Daeyu, a wealth management company, started receiving dividends from the development project in Daejang-dong, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. The amount of money exchanged between the two is in the tens of billions of won per episode. Hong’s side is reported to have expressed to those around him that he had repaid all the money in a few days at the earliest, or 2-3 weeks at the latest from the date of borrowing. It is argued that it has nothing to do with the Daejang-dong project.
Mr. Hong, Kim’s senior at the media company, even visited the Hwacheon Daeyu office in Pangyo-dong, Seongnam-si for money transactions, and it is said that many of the company’s executives and employees witnessed such a scene. Prosecutors say they are also investigating the financial transaction between the two and whether it is related to the Daejang-dong development project.
Hong and Kim, who were seniors and juniors who joined the same media company, were high-ranking executives and working-level personnel belonging to the same media until the suspicion of Dae Jang-dong was raised. Former Deputy Director Kim Man-bae joined the Hankook Ilbo in January 1992 as a publicly recruited reporter. After that, he worked for Ilgan Sports and a private news agency, Newsis. He joined Money Today in June 2004 and started working as a reporter for the legal team. Since then, he has served as the deputy head of the legal team and the manager. From 2019, he began to be treated as a senior reporter and deputy director of the social affairs department of the editorial bureau.
On the 6th, Park Soo-young, a member of the People’s Power, unveiled the list of ‘5 billion promise groups’ at the National Assembly Political Affairs Committee’s audit of the Financial Services Commission. Five people including Kwon Soon-il, Park Young-soo, Kwak Sang-do, Kim Su-nam, and Choi Jae-kyung were disclosed under their real names, and one said ‘Mr. Hong’. The media reported that Mr. Hong was the owner of the media company.
Earlier, Rep. Park Soo-young said, “Some people have already received the 5 billion won promise on the Hwacheon Daewoo promise list, there are people who have made a promise but haven’t received it yet because the Daejang-dong gate burst, and there are people who pretended to have borrowed it by writing a letter of borrowing in a hurry and then returned it. There are additional reports that there are people urging them to hurry up.”
Money Today told reporters on the day that Hong was mentioned, “It’s not true. We will take civil and criminal legal action against reports that are not true.” The company made a statement, but the anonymous community blind app Money Today lounge said, “Mr. Hong? Haha”, “Don’t just give a one-line answer through the representative and director, at least express your position properly to the members and give an explanation. If you’re really brave and don’t shy away from it. Today’s company event was definitely the president’s welcome speech, but what happened that suddenly changed to the CEO? If you’re proud, why do you hide so much behind you? If it’s not run away or something.” “Everyone knows that the older brother (former Deputy Director Kim Man-bae) is the chairman line. The president and the CEO tolerated it so that he could not write articles and do things as he pleases. Will the editor-in-chief control the yangban? This should be considered an owner risk. How many times has it already been?” Criticisms such as
After Rep. Park Soo-young revealed the list of ‘5 billion promise groups’ on the 6th, Money Today CEO Park Jong-myeon called for the first time after allegations of preferential treatment for Daejang-dong development came up and had a conversation. CEO Park Jong-myeon told reporters, ‘I admit that I have HR responsibility’, but said, ‘I really didn’t know about the company. (Chairman) is not related,’ he said.
However, after the Kyunghyang Shinmun report on the 29th, criticism was again directed towards Hong in the Money Today Lounge, an anonymous community blind app. “You didn’t get it? “Isn’t it related?”, “Hong Hong Hong”, “Awkward~~~”, “It’s over”, “Wow Park Jong-myeon called the reporters and said it had nothing to do with it? You lied to the reporters?” “You really hit the goal” etc.
On the 29th, the Money Today side drew a line saying, “It is something the company does not know.” Media Today asked Hong through phone calls and text messages, such as ‘Have you made a monetary transaction of more than 5 billion won with Kim Man-bae, the former Deputy Director of Money Today?’ could not hear
[관련 기사 : 화천대유 사건, 머니투데이 기자들은 왜 목소리를 내지 못할까]
[관련 기사 : 화천대유 ‘50억 그룹’ 언론계 인사 거론에 소속 매체 “사실 무근”]
