[Issue ON] Prosecutors will soon be indicted...What are the suspicions and legal issues?

■ Host: Anchor Kim Youngsoo Kim, Anchor Lee Ha-rin
■ Starring: Attorney Kim Kwang-sam

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN NewsON] when quoting.

[Anchor]
The prosecution, which is investigating suspicions of meddling in the nomination, plans to indict Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun by tomorrow. As the prosecution raided the People's Power Headquarters and the Gyeongnam Provincial Office of Changwon City Hall, a wide-ranging investigation seems to be taking place. [Anchor] The prosecution plans to first indict him for violating the Political Fund Act and continue the rest of the investigation. Let me take a closer look at it with lawyer Kim Kwang-sam.

Welcome. The stem of suspicions related to Myung Tae-kyun can be divided into three main categories. I'll briefly explain it while looking at the graphic. First of all, whether he intervened in the nomination of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun in exchange for free opinion polls, second, whether he manipulated opinion polls in the process, and third, whether he also intervened in interest projects such as Changwon Industrial Complex. Let's take a closer look at each case.

[Anchor]
Since we are conducting further investigations, suspicions may rise further. First, the suspicion of intervening in the nomination, including Kim Young-sun. Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun have been arrested. What evidence do you think the prosecution has secured so far?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
First of all, it is related to the violation of the Political Fund Act, but didn't you make a strategic nomination when former lawmaker Kim Young-sun nominated for a by-election? However, the strategic nomination itself is controversial whether Myung Tae-kyun asked the president to do the strategic nomination or not. Then, we are investigating how it affected the strategic nomination, and in fact, it seems to have been recognized that he received about 76 million won from former lawmaker Kim Young-sun as a price for the nomination.

So, regardless of whether the president intervened or not, when former lawmaker Kim Young-sun was elected in return for the nomination, isn't it that he has been receiving half of the salary of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun? That's going to be 7620 over 16 times. That's why this money itself has a price, because of the nomination and the price. [Anchor] You already secured the flow of money through seizure and search, right?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
That's why they're prosecuting for violating the Political Fund Act.

[Anchor]
First of all, I think I'm going to hand it over to trial tomorrow on charges of violating the Political Fund Act. It's related to the expiration of the arrest period, right? [Kim Kwang-sam] That's right. Once the prosecution has a warrant, they can investigate while in custody for 10 days and extend it once.

[Anchor]
First of all, the first indictment is made to secure the recruits.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
So we can investigate as much as possible until the 22nd. However, the prosecution of the violation of the Political Fund Act is only a part of the big criminal charges, so even after being arrested, Changwon City continued to search and seizure, whether it was the power of the people or the Gyeongnam Provincial Office related to the Changwon Industrial Complex. Then, in the future, the prosecution is now tracking another criminal charge other than this charged charge.

[Anchor]
To investigate the suspicion of intervention in the nomination, the party leader was Lee Joon-seok at the time of the nomination. The chairman of the mission committee is lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun. Has the investigation been conducted now as well?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
If money comes and goes, the allegation of violating the Political Fund Act ends with that in return, but if you try to reveal whether the nomination is involved, you will have to look into the nomination process. So, what kind of influence did pollster pollster pollster pollster pollster have in the process of strategic nomination and what its contents are. And who is related to Myung Tae-kyun and the most important person in the nomination is the chairman of the mission.

Also, since the person who approved this is the representative, whether the chairman of the delegation or the party leader was involved in this. We investigate all these things.

[Anchor]
But the connection is the Yoon Suk Yeol President and his wife. Isn't it a suspicion that Myung Tae-kyun used his friendship with the President and his wife of Yoon Suk Yeol to intervene in the nomination?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
That's why the Democratic Party also revealed the 17-second president's development. Of course, he was the president-elect at that time and his voice came a day before he took office, but as a result, did the president really intervene in the nomination process? If you intervened in the nomination, wouldn't it be related to who the chairman of the mission committee, the party leader, or the working-level officials related to the mission committee members?

The prosecution is investigating that part. Originally, when I first investigated, many people thought that they would only investigate parts related to pollock bacteria in a formal way, and the media also did. The reason was that the president was involved, so I had a lot of doubts that the prosecution could investigate that far.

However, given the search and seizure, the investigation is being conducted quite extensively, and the scope of the investigation is bound to be expanded, especially in relation to the nomination.

[Anchor]
Not long ago, the People's Power Party also raided and searched twice.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
It's to secure data related to nomination. Since the prosecution has secured meaningful data there, prosecution is likely to violate the Political Fund Act, and then investigate and prosecute the money received in return for nominations, and the rest of the investigation will likely continue.

[Anchor]
Did you get any meaningful data regarding the involvement of President Yoon and his wife in the party?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
That hasn't been announced by the prosecution yet, and nothing has been released yet. It's very sensitive because it's about the president and his wife, and we're only investigating the nomination process, so the president will call and intervene.Either that or Mrs. Kim Gun-hee intervened.There's no information about whether it's done or not yet.

[Anchor]
I'm very interested in whether I have a golden phone or not.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
I don't know if the prosecution can secure a golden phone. Since Myung Tae-kyun changed his phone every three months and said he buried it in his father's grave, where did he throw it? So the most important thing is whether he has already discarded it or where he is hiding it. In some cases, the prosecution may have secured it. However, no matter how much the prosecution is investigating, if something related to crime comes out, it cannot be covered by an agency called the prosecution. Then it's a dereliction of duty.

That's why we usually say that rhetoric is a creature other than politics. There are cases where unexpected things suddenly come out while tracking the account, and evidence of a completely unrelated person may come out during the seizure and search. But I can't just cover it up. Because it's all listed on the search and seizure list and all the contents come out when you do forensics. So, unlike other cases, it is a case worth watching the results of the prosecution's investigation, I evaluate it like that.

[Anchor]
In the end, the key is whether they intervened in various nominations through public opinion polls. We'll explain it while looking at the graphic. The Democratic Party has released a memorandum. That's what it's about. The Future Korea Research Institute, which is known to have been practically operated by Myung Tae-kyun, is a company that actually conducts polls on President Yoon, and it is a memorandum of debt performance written by PNR.

According to the contents, the Future Korea Research Institute failed to keep its promise to pay back 61 million won in receivables to PNR. And the Future Korea Research Institute promised to receive money from candidate Yoon's wife, Kim Gun-hee, and that it would be difficult to receive it now because it was in the presidential election, so she would receive money from Kim after the presidential election and pay back all the outstanding funds. This is what it's about.

[Anchor]
The meaning of this memorandum and the explanation of Myung's lawyer came out.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
When the Democratic Party first released the debt performance memorandum, I didn't look closely. Maybe then Myung Tae-kyun had some free poll for the president and money from First Lady Kim Gun-hee. That's what I thought. But when I looked closely at the contents of the memorandum, there was something like this. In Korea in the future, there is something to receive money from Kim Gun-hee, the wife of then presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol, and then this content itself seems to be about polling and receiving money.

However, since it is difficult to receive it because it is in the middle of a presidential election, the Korea Institute of Future Studies received it after the presidential election and turned the poll into a credit to me. So I have money to pay back, so I'm going to keep telling the PNR pollster to pay back the outstanding amount quickly. That's why she said she would receive the receivables from Mrs. Kim Gun-hee and pay them back.

However, it contains information that confirms that it is not true and that it is false. So, they did the poll for me, but it is a memorandum of implementation confirming that it is a lie to receive money from Kim Gun-hee and the president's wife. If you look at the implementation memorandum here, there is something I don't understand, but I explain it easily, but I don't know if you understand it.

First of all, let's do a poll on credit to PNR. And for PNR, the Future Korea Research Institute will conduct sales activities. And if you do sales activities, you'll have to give the money you received to PNR. That's 62.15 million won. In PNR, I'm trying to offset this because I have money to give and I have money to receive receivables.

Then at the Korea Institute for Future, I don't know who it is, but give me the operating expenses for now. And he lied like this, saying that he would receive the receivables from Mrs. Kim Gun-hee. So, PNR gave me the outstanding money. They gave me operating expenses. After that, he didn't pay back the outstanding amount.

그러니까 이행각서를 쓰면서 대통령 부인으로부터 돈을 받는다는 것은 거짓말이라는 것을 확인하고 그걸 믿을 수 없으니까 개인인 강혜경 씨가 이 돈을 갚아라 하면서 이 이행각서를 쓰면서 그 밑에 강혜경하고 PNR 대표가 서명한 것이기 때문에 이 내용 자체는 대통령 부부와는 전체적으로 해석해 보면 상관이 없는 각서가 된 거죠.

[Anchor]
However, one of the many suspicions so far is why Myung Tae-kyun did such a free poll. Suspicions continued to be raised about who might have received the money from.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
So if I look at the overall flow, I contact a politician through former lawmaker Kim Young-sun to see if the power in the center is right. We're making contact, and the medium is a poll. I don't have money. I leave the poll to a company called PNR on credit, take it with me, make a deal, and ask for money from there.

So some candidates gave money, and moreover, some candidates in local elections gave 270 million won. I got it and blocked it. I turned it on. It can be said that the process has been repeated over and over again.

[Anchor]
You mentioned the cost of the poll, but the names of influential figures continue to be mentioned in relation to this poll and the cost of the poll. In particular, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is actively explaining.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
Mayor Oh Se-hoon is the most active explanation. Isn't that why you came to see yourself first? Myung Taekyun. So, what Myung Tae-kyun said at first came to me and told me to choose whether to be the president or the mayor of Seoul. That's why it's absurd from Mayor Oh Se-hoon's point of view. They kicked him out of there.

So I kicked him out, and a man named Kang Cheol-won, who was in charge of the camp, had another fight there. That's why Myung Taekyun was kicked out. But in my view, Mayor Oh Se-hoon is right because Myung Tae-kyun said that. Given that Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, "I don't know why he became the mayor," it has nothing to do with Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

[Anchor]
Then are you the sponsor of Mayor Oh Se-hoon, I heard you gave money to Myung Tae-kyun?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
There is a person named Kim Han-jung, and Mayor Oh Se-hoon's position is that. At that time, Kim Han-jung sponsored within the camp, and she sponsored 5 million won only once. But he was not able to get a seat in the camp, but he heard about the fight like this. So, we meet individually and pay related expenses, and then later on, we pay 14 million won related to President Yoon's presidential election.

So, I think that he made such a payment and got very close to the pollack and attempted to put his foot in such things as power.

[Anchor]
It's a claim that there's already been a broken relationship with Myung Tae-kyun. Another person who makes a similar claim is Daegu Mayor Hong Joon Pyo. I also posted on Facebook today, saying, "Don't get involved with scammers." Is there anything in particular revealed about the Hong Joon Pyo market?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
Nothing has been revealed yet. However, if you look at the contents as a whole, there are suspicions that the relationship with Mayor Hong is deep. Because Mayor Hong ran for mayor of Daegu. He also ran for a parliamentary seat in Suseong-gu, Daegu, and then ran in the election with President Yoon. Every time, there are some suspicions that Myung Tae-kyun was involved. Another suspicion is that an individual sent a gift to Myung Tae-kyun, but who sent it is suspected of being Mayor Hong's wife.

However, Mayor Hong says that there is no such fact at all, and that he is a fraud, and that he sent the gift is Mr. Choi at his Daegu City Hall Seoul office in Seoul, who sent it unilaterally, and that it has nothing to do with Mayor Hong.

[Anchor]
I think it's a part that needs more confirmation of the facts. The last part, let's look at the interest business.

[Anchor]
New suspicions have also emerged regarding the involvement in the interest business. It was about 40 days before the government announced the candidate site for Changwon's second national industrial complex in March 2023. Former lawmaker Kim Young-sun's family bought land near the candidate site. Former lawmaker Kim Young-sun bought a house to return to his hometown after his younger siblings retired. While claiming like this, I explained that I had no idea about this.

[Anchor]
The prosecutors of Changwon City Hall and Gyeongnam Provincial Office raided all of them.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
By the way, isn't it that Myung Tae-kyun met with working-level officials and got briefings on the Changwon Industrial Complex? That's why he said he would do it himself to be designated as a mountain complex. However, former lawmaker Kim Young-sun is the eldest daughter and has two younger brothers. He's the wife of one of his younger siblings, so he'll make it. Olke bought the land there, paying over 300 million won.

However, since it is only about 2km away from the mountain, in a way, how can you buy this without information related to the mountain. That's why Kim Young-sun obtained and provided information with Myung Tae-kyun. Or, in some cases, Olke bought the land itself, but the actual owner is former lawmaker Kim Young-sun. Then, there is a suspicion that this is also related to pollack bacteria, and that there is an interest intervention.

[Anchor]
I see. I think this is the point to look into the designation of Changwon's high-tech industrial complex. I'll give you the last question. Some analysts say that the prosecution's investigation is directed at the president and his wife. How do you see it?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
If it is related to the nomination intervention, it will be very difficult to close the investigation by passing through the president's denial on how the case itself will be called by the Democratic Party of Korea. So, whether it's a crime or not, especially if the intervention itself is related to former lawmaker Kim Young-sun's by-election, it's when he's the president-elect, although it's controversial. However, if another nomination, representative Lee Joon-seok, is involved in the Pohang mayor, the prosecution itself will have no choice but to investigate.

[Anchor]
Thank you. The prosecution is expected to indict Myung Tae-kyun and Kim Young-sun tomorrow. We have pointed out related suspicions and issues. I was with lawyer Kim Kwang-sam. Thank you.