Police Seizure Lee Ki-heung, chairman of the Korea Sports Council, Suspicion of Illegal Employment

Police have launched a forced investigation into Lee Ki-heung, chairman of the Korea Sports Council, who is suspected of hiring employees illegally.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's anti-corruption investigation team sent investigators to eight locations, including Jincheon National Training Center, Chairman Lee's residence, and Hanjin Tourism's office, this morning (18th) to secure data related to the alleged misconduct.

The bodies of Jang Jae-geun, head of Jincheon Training Center, Jeong Dong-guk, head of the training planning department of the Sports Association, and Lee Hyuk-ryul, head of the Korea Biathlon Federation, were also found to have been raided.

Chairman Lee is suspected of unfairly ordering senior officials in the athletes' village to ease qualification requirements so that he could hire his daughter's college friend as an employee of the national athletes' village in 2022.

Chairman Lee is also suspected of giving him a major position related to the Paris Olympics in exchange for 80 million won worth of goods purchases from the chairman of a certain sports organization he is close to.

He is also accused of providing preferential treatment to the Paris Olympics observers, including five acquaintances who have nothing to do with the sports world, such as tourism that was not planned, and of using privately sponsored items from the sports association.

Hanjin Tourism is a company that performed the observation team's business agency service, and the police are looking into business data related to airline tickets, overseas travel, and tickets to Gyeonggi Province.

Earlier on the 10th of last month, the government's joint public service inspection team in the Cabinet Office asked the police to investigate eight sports association officials, including Chairman Lee, saying they were suspected of obstruction and embezzlement.