Former lawmaker Lee Hwa-young, who was arrested and indicted on charges of accepting bribes from the Ssangbangwool Group, was found to have received a corporate vehicle and a separate driver from Ssangbangwool during the June 13 local elections in 2018, before taking up his post as deputy department. governor for peace in Gyeonggi-do. Recently, the prosecution added this part to the charge of violating the Political Fund Act when changing the indictment of the former legislator Lee.
At the time of the 2018 local elections, Mr. Lee, who was an external director of Ssangbangwool, serves as the chief of staff of Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung’s election camp. After Governor Lee was elected, he was appointed Vice Governor for Peace in July 2018, and visited Pyongyang in October to forge an economic cooperation agreement with North Korea. He is also under investigation for having Gyeonggi-do pay for North Korea’s smart farm aid project to Ssangbangwool.
On the 28th, in the hearing of the 11th Criminal Division of Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo), during the bribery trial of former Vice Governor Lee, the prosecution found that Ssangbangwool’s side was accused of corruption. vehicle between May 15 and July 9, before the local elections of June 13, 2018. At that time, driver A’s statement was submitted that the driver was provided to Lee.
Mr. A testified, “During the Gyeonggi Governor election campaign, I picked up Mr. Lee from his home in Myeonmok-dong, Seoul at dawn, and went to Gyeonggi-do to campaign, and after the election, I went to Yeouido- dong , Seoul, where Mr. Lee’s personal office was.” He was also found to have testified that “Mr. Lee asked Ssangbangwool to replace the Lexus with a carnival, saying he needed a bigger vehicle for the election campaign for the governor of Gyeonggi-do.”
Mr B, an employee of Ssangbangwool’s finance team at the time who appeared as a witness in the case, said “No” to the prosecution’s question, “Did Ssangbangwool generally provide vehicles and corporate cards to outside directors?”
The prosecution arrested and charged Mr Lee in October last year, and from July 2018 to August 2022, he allegedly received 320 million worth of illegal political money. He drew attention to the alleged gift of money. Among them, the money (about 260 million earned) received during the tenure of the Lieutenant Governor for Peace (July 2018-January 2020) and the CEO of KINTEX (July 2020-September 2022), which was are public officials, also accused of bribery.
However, the prosecution amended Lee’s indictment last month to include additional political money received by Ssangbangbang during the local elections, before his inauguration as deputy governor. In addition, details were also noted in the statement of the recently accused former chairman Kim Seong-tae of the Ssangbangwool Group.
Prosecutors said former Chairman Kim gave Lee 14.97 million won during the 2018 local elections, including giving driver A a corporate card to use about 10.32 million won and pay a salary of 4.65 million won.
Meanwhile, on the next date, March 3, the court plans to hold a witness examination of Vice Chairman Bang Yong-chul, who was charged together with former vice governor Lee. Vice Chairman Bang denied his allegations of bribery and violation of the Political Fund Act, so on the 24th, through a lawyer, he said, “It is not appropriate to express a different point of view from former Chairman Kim Seong-tae, who was return to Korea and is on trial.” I denied the claim saying there was no relationship, but I will admit it. “
