South Korea: Prosecution targeted Lee Jae-myung in 2017-2018

[soryang]

(Source- KBS News 9.8) The KBS news caption, "Prosecutor pressure, Say Lee Jae-myung is corrupt." Gyeonggi Province Governor and leading democratic party president candidate Lee Jae-myung (right).

In an exclusive investigative report, released after six months of investigation, KBS News discloses evidence suggesting a scheme by a Seoul Central District prosecutor to frame Lee Jae-myung for soliciting unlawful financial support, personnel support or other favors to his campaign to become governor of Gyeonggi province. At the time, Governor Lee Jae-myung was mayor of Seongnam city. Lee Jae-myung is currently the leading democratic party candidate for president in the ongoing primary campaign for the March 2022 election.* A statement from KBS clarified, this case is about the prosecution not Lee Jae-myung.

*'이재명 표적수사' 보도 KBS 기자 "주제는 이재명 아닌 검찰" 2021.09.08 12:55, https://m.news.nate.com/view/20210908n19482?mid=e02&list=recent&cpcd=

Much of the evidence, comes from voluminous written accounts by and correspondence with Lee Jun-seok (his name is a homonym of the young People's Power Party leader's name, there is no relation) chief executive of Goma Trade, a relatively small corporation with 80 employees at the time. Lee JS was accused at the time of operating an overseas gambling web site. According to Lee JS's account, the as yet unnamed prosecutor, identified only as Mr. Kim, demanded Lee JS provide false statements to incriminate then Mayor Lee Jae-myung. At first, Lee Jun-seok was offered favorable treatment concerning the charges against him. When he declined to provide such statements, he, his family members, including his wife and mother were repeatedly threatened with prosecution and confinement.

The prosecutor's unlawful behavior is similar to that described in detail in the case of former Prime Minister Han Myeong-suk who was imprisoned for financial crimes. The prime minister's prosecution was allegedly based on perjured testimony solicited by the prosecution from an imprisoned white collar criminal who later recanted his testimony. The solicitation of perjury from Lee Jun-seok in the Seongnam case also appears very similar to the inducements and threats delivered to an incarcerated white collar criminal in a similar scheme to implicate director of the No Mu-hyun foundation, Yoo Shi-min, in financial crimes with perjured testimony more recently. The alleged prosecution plot against director Yoo Shi-min was labelled the Channel A News scandal, because the scheme was attempted by a Dong A media reporter, Lee Dong-jae, acting as agent for the prosecutor. In that case, chat records revealed that the suspected prosecutor, was Han Dong-hun, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol's right hand man. Ironically, Han who refused to release the code to his encrypted handphone as relevant evidence in that case, made a public statement today dismissing Lee Jun-seok's 3000 pages of evidence as unworthy of belief because it is from a "vulgar source." The former Prosecutor General Yoon, is now a major candidate in the conservative presidential primary contests. He is surrounded by legal controversies.

The prosecution of former Justice Minister Cho Guk and his wife shares similar characteristics. The testimony of one of the key prosecution witnesses, Choi Song-hae, the former president of Dongyang University, against Chung Kyung-shim, Cho's wife, also appears to be perjured in circumstances where Park was alleged to have presented false academic credentials about himself, and committed financial self dealing while university president. Former university president Choi testified that professor Chung forged an award certificate in favor of her daughter, allegedly to facilitate her entry to another university. The contention there, thus far unproven, is that the former university president was threatened with prosecution to induce false testimony against Professor Chung. So the case related to Lee Jae-myung while mayor of Seongnam suggests a continuing pattern of political corruption and abuse of power in the prosecution offices of South Korea. It's alleged that prosecutions of Cho Guk and his wife were directed by candidate Yoon Seok-yeol as Prosecutor General at the time.

Previously, allegations of abuse of power and politically motivated prosecutions, supported by fabricated evidence, were given little or no coverage or dismissive treatment in the widely conservative South Korean mainstream media. This case is one of the first taken seriously by an established media institution. Just a few days ago, an independent, digital media, investigative web site, Newsverse, disclosed documents tending to show the central public prosecutors office was behind the preparation of charges against two democratic politicians, director Yoo Shi-min, and reporters, in the run up to the April 2020 general elections.* The instant investigative report concerning prosecution actions in late 2017 and early 2018 to target Lee Jae-myung as candidate for governor of Gyeonggi Province, was released by KBS just a few days later. This is probably the largest news institution to allege criminal misconduct by prosecution offices thus far. The misconduct involves solicitation of perjury, abuse of public office, and the use of inducements and threats to perpertrate fraud in a legal proceeding.

*Will the legal dam break on Yoon Seok-yeol's presidential campaign? Sep.4, https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2021/09/will-legal-dam-break-on-yoon-seok-yeols.html


(Source- KBS News 9.8) The nature of threats to induce false testimony against Lee Jae-myung described in a written statement by Lee Jun-seok.

If Lee Jun-seok had agreed to incriminate Lee Jae-myung, the prosecutor agreed to release him from confinement. Lee JS said Lee Jae-myung had never solicited financial favors or other support in kind. The prosecutor told him, "tell us he asked for campaign funds and personnel to support his campaign, if you put it that freely, that will be good." Allegedly, Prosecutor ( 검사 ) Kim, also said, "if you forget what to say, we will tell you." Reportedly, Mr. Kim also threatened to give Lee Jun-seok, 15 years or more in prison, prosecute his wife, brother and mother while imprisoning them right away as co-conspirators, and to shake his company up with a mass investigation. He said he would tie down Lee Jun-seok, in criminal litigation three to four times, which would bankrupt him with attorneys' costs in the hundreds of millions won. Lee Jun-seok, was repeatedly indicted and tried, for multiple offenses, over the years. Some of the cases were described as "out of the cabinet cases" by a legal expert, that is repeating old charges that had previously resulted in dismissals. The prosecutors claim Lee Jun-seok, is an international mafia figure. Lee counters, "with everything they have charged against me (over the years), that charge had never been made."