South Korea: The Lee Cheol Affair- allegations of political corruption

[soryang]

(Source- 뉴스썰TV April 1) Former Prime Minister during the Park Geun-hye administration, Hwang Kyo-ahn (center) and Supreme Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol (right). Hwang is a candidate for National Assembly representative in the Jongno district. Hwang is the leader of the newly named United Future Party (conservative opposition party). He is running against Lee Nak-won, also a former prime minister from the incumbent democratic party. Both are presumed to be in contention for their parties' respective presidential nominations in 2022. Yoon's political calculus is that it is only through the success of the United Future Party in the upcoming National Assembly general election this April 15 that he can survive.

Public outrage grows in South Korea over the use of right wing political influence to protect the family of Supreme Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol from prosecution over the years. Left of center media anticipate that Yoon is likely to be the first object of investigation by the Public Corruption office established by the recent fast track legislative reforms enacted into law earlier this year. In spite of the extreme efforts by the right to block that legislation, the very purpose of the prosecutorial reform was to prevent the corrupt use of prosecution powers for political purposes. Currently, it is this political corruption which the Yoon office is alleged to represent.

See:

South Korea's Top Prosecutor Embroiled in Family Scandals, Mar 15
https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2020/03/is-yoon-seok-yeol-obstructing.html

South Korea: Top Prosecutor's "Mother-in-law" Scandal Continues, Mar 22
https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2020/03/south-koreas-top-prosecutor-yoon-seok.html


Yoon in the past has often been quoted as beholding to no person no matter how powerful and only dedicated to justice. This patina of impartiality has been stripped away in the recent disclosures about the role Hwang played in Yoon's bar discipline in December 2012, and the alleged role Na Kyung-won's husband played as judge in delaying pending investigations against Yoon's mother in law and wife for alleged business frauds. The photo above of Hwang and Yoon together in a partisan political setting before the April 15 elections doesn't help Yoon's professional image. Investigations against Hwang and Na for unlawful conduct interfering with National Assembly processes have gone nowhere, so the image itself raises the appearance of a continuing conflict of interest by Yoon as the senior prosecutor of South Korea.

A current MBC story going viral in the alternative media alleges that a Channel A reporter from their legal coverage team, contacted a former CEO, Lee Cheol, from a private corporation called Sillajen and attempted to induce him to enter an arrangement to defame the head of the No Moo-hyun foundation, Yoo Shi-min, who has been an outspoken critic of the right. Yoo Shi-min's blistering accusations are often used by left leaning media against the leading lights in the United Future Party and specifically include Na Kyung-won, and lately, Yoon Seok-yeol. Lee Cheol and one of his former associates are the sources of the allegations. Lee Cheol has been in confinement pending charges of financial crimes.



(Source- MBC News 4.4) Graphic depicts relationships among Lee Cheol, former Value Investments chief executive (formerly Sillajen chief executive)(upper right); Channel A unnamed reporter (upper left); the Lee Cheol acquaintence (lower right) who is the MBC confidential source; and MBC as the news organization breaking the story (lower left). So the graphic represents Channel A reporter coercing evidence of political corruption from Lee Cheol in four letters, who in turn asks his acquaintance to meet with the Channel A reporter as a proxy because Lee is in confinement pending charges of financial crimes. Subsequently three meetings take place between the confidential source and the Channel A reporter. The confidential source then goes to MBC news as a "whistleblower" because he doesn't want to cooperate with the Channel A reporter's scheme.

It was reported by Lee that the Channel A reporter solicited a false report that Yoo Shi-min, the foundation director, had traded stocks in the corporation based upon inside information. The former corporate chief executive alleged the reporter told him that Channel A, in tacit cooperation with the prosecution office's request, would publish the defamatory information against Yoo Shi-min. The source said Lee was also requested to provide any financial information that could be used against persons connected to the incumbent political party or Blue House. According to the confidential source, connected to Lee, various threats and offers were made to Lee Cheol to induce his cooperation, including death threats, and threats to prosecute and imprison his wife. The Channel A reporter is alleged to have asserted a close relationship with the central prosecutor's office and the ability to see to it that Lee didn't get a prison sentence. Lee alleged that the reporter sent him letters which included threats, while he was confined in jail.

According to MBC News, the confidential source, alleged that he had met the Channel A reporter multiple times, who ultimately allowed him to hear a recording of incriminating conversations on the phone with a prosecutor allegedly close to Yoon Seok-yeol, as bona fides to support the illegal arrangement. According to the allegations as reported by MBC News, the source was confident that the voice in the recorded phone conversation was that of someone close to Yoon Seok-cheol, whose name has not been disclosed by MBC. Channel A News and the prosecutor's office deny all such allegations, and dispute the credibility of the news story by MBC or the existence of any corroborating evidence. According to MBC news, they have corroborated independently that their confidential source actually did meet with the Channel A reporter and they dispute Channel A's disavowal of knowledge of these meetings or their purpose which was stated as being intended to have an impact on the upcoming April 15 election cycle. A relatively well known finance minister and deputy prime minister from the Park Geun-hye administration, Choi Kyung-hwon, had been implicated earlier in financial misconduct involving Sillajen investments. Allegedly, according to the confidential source there was a perceived need to muddy the waters of corruption in the prior conservative administration by implicating Yoo Shi-min or other pro-Moon politicians in the financial scandal.

Apparently, there are recordings of conversations between the confidential source and the Channel A reporter. Portions of these have aired on MBC. One potential defense on the part of Channel A is to disavow knowledge of the reporter's individual actions. Channel A is a subsidiary of Dong A media, owners of the conservative newspaper Tong A Ilbo. The Minister of Justice, Chu Mi-ae made a statement concerning the affair, which she felt warranted an investigation, on the basis of a suspected improper relation between the press and prosecution, and the possibility of a politically motivated investigation.