[News UP] Prosecutors, Myung Tae-kyun and Kim Young-sun are indicted today.What are the legal issues?

■ Host: Anchor Yoon Jae-hee
■ Starring: Lawyer Park Sung-bae

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

[Anchor]
The prosecution, which is investigating suspicions of intervening in the nomination of Kim Gun-hee, plans to indict Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun today. Let's take a closer look at the related information with lawyer Park Sung-bae. Please come in. Is there a high possibility that the prosecution will prosecute the two, Myung Tae-kyun and Kim Young-sun together today?

[Park Sung-bae]
First of all, Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun were arrested on the 15th of last month on charges of violating the Political Fund Act. In particular, in the case of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun, the 20th, which the prosecution can arrest in the investigation stage, expires today. As a result, the arrest charge has expired, and Myung Tae-kyun applied for an arrest suit on the 26th of last month. Unlike bail, an arrest suit can be said to be a request to judge the appropriateness of the arrest once again, but if you apply for an arrest suit, the prosecution must present relevant evidence to the judge. Then, in the process, it takes time for the judge who received the evidence to return the evidence to the prosecution after the relevant hearing. That time is not included in the restraint period.

As a result, in the case of Myung Tae-kyun, about two days after the arrest hearing are not included in the arrest period, that is, in the case of Myung Tae-kyun, the arrest period is still about two days, but former lawmaker Kim Young-sun has decided to arrest and prosecute both sides as the arrest period expires today. The relationship between the two is a necessary accomplice relationship. The allegation is that the political funds were paid in a way other than the way set by the Political Fund Act, but since the person who was pointed out as the person who gave the money was former lawmaker Kim Young-sun and the person who received the money was Myung Tae-kyun, both of them should be arrested because they are accomplices, and as the arrest period for former lawmaker Kim Young-sun expires today, both of them will be prosecuted.

[Anchor]
There are a number of allegations.Ma is expected to prosecute for violating the Political Fund Act first. Should we say that the prosecution's investigation has progressed to some extent now?

[Park Sung-bae]
First of all, in this case, the regulation that punishes violations of the Political Fund Act and the case of giving or receiving political funds in connection with the recommendation of a specific candidate is applied. It can be said that the investigation has been conducted to a large extent. Myung Tae-kyun is suspected of helping former lawmaker Kim Young-sun nominate during the 2022 parliamentary by-election and receiving 76 million won in return. The flow of funds has been confirmed to a large extent, and Kang Hye-kyung, the accounting officer, has stated some circumstances, as well as a recording of Kang Hye-kyung's conversation with Myung Tae-kyun or former lawmaker Kim Young-sun. As a result, arrest and prosecution seem inevitable, and this case was actually filed by the Gyeongnam Provincial Election Commission in December last year.

After the election, the accountant filed a complaint with the prosecution, raising suspicions about the continued deposit of some of the tax money to Myung Tae-kyun in the process of managing political funds, but prosecution is virtually inevitable. However, the dispute is still quite fierce, and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun is protesting that he only returned the money he lent or borrowed the election expenses and returned the money. In addition, some of the candidates are suspected of receiving money from local election candidates in return for the nomination, apart from the parliamentary election. In this regard, some of the candidates stated that they gave money in return for the nomination during the prosecution's investigation phase, but after the arrest warrant was rejected, the preliminary candidate who made such a statement reversed his statement that it was actually a loan, and even if he is indicted in the future, considerable disputes are expected to unfold in court over legal disputes or facts.

[Anchor]
The Future Korea Research Institute run by Myung Tae-kyun is a polling institute. The Democratic Party has released a memorandum on the PNR. We prepared the contents graphically, but if you look at it, it seems that there are receivables. There are receivables and after the presidential election, we receive money from First Lady Kim Gun-hee to repay them all. It's written like this. What meaning should I look at it?

[Park Sung-bae]
The contents are somewhat complicated, but this debt memorandum was prepared in July 2022. In the first place, there were money that the Future Korea Research Institute had to pay when it asked PNR for services related to opinion polls. It had to pay about 61 million won in receivables, but from the perspective of PNR, there was a payment to be paid to the Future Korea Research Institute. It was a sales agent's expense. From the perspective of PNR, the amount of money that both sides have to pay is similar, worth 60 million won, so we are going to offset it. Kang Hye-kyung, who was a member of the Future Korea Research Institute, asked for the money to be paid, although she tried to deal with it in a way that they did not exchange money with each other.

The reason for this is that Kim Gun-hee asked that PNR directly pay for the money that the Future Korea Research Institute has to receive and the presidential election is currently underway, but since it is difficult to receive money because the presidential election is underway, I will receive money from Kim and pay back all the outstanding funds after the presidential election, so the agreement was reached. Nevertheless, even after the presidential election, she does not receive money from Kim Gun-hee and hand it over. All of these circumstances have been indicated in the implementation memorandum. The debt performance memorandum even mentioned that everything the Future Korea Research Institute mentioned about Kim is false on the premise that if the money is not actually repaid in the future, it is sufficient to raise suspicions that Myung Tae-kyun had to receive money from Kim Gun-hee.

In connection with this, Myung Tae-kyun's wife wrote the memorandum arbitrarily by Kang Hye-kyung. As Myung Tae-kyun was quite puzzled by the phone conversation with PNR CEO last September, why does Kang Hye-kyung, an employee, have to make a guarantee? And there is definitely a comment that wonders whether Kang Hye-kyung acquired the money when I dropped it off. Not only is it a memorandum of implementation written by Kang Hye-kyung arbitrarily, but Myung Tae-kyun insists that he is not aware of the existence of the memorandum. However, if the contents of the memorandum of implementation are true, the Korea Institute for Future Studies conducted illegal opinion polls during the presidential election and received money in return unless proven otherwise. Furthermore, since he conducted an illegal poll on former lawmaker Kim Young-sun, it is enough to raise suspicions that he was involved in the nomination in return.

[Anchor]
I think the authenticity of the memorandum needs to be checked more. Anyway, the overall arrow of this case is going toward President Yoon and his wife, and the Democratic Party filed a complaint with the prosecution yesterday.

[Park Sung-bae]
That's right. The Democratic Party of Korea has filed a complaint with the prosecution against President Yoon and his wife on charges of violating the Political Fund Act. Above all, even if you intervened in the nomination, there is room for legal dispute over whether this is a violation of the Public Official Election Act. As the president-elect, there is a legal dispute over whether he is a public official who must keep his political neutrality obligations, and such a dispute is expected, so it should be considered that he has filed an additional complaint for violating the Political Fund Act. Above all, the debt performance memorandum under the name of the Future Korea Research Institute just explained that the Future Korea Research Institute has something to receive money from First Lady Kim Gun-hee. If so, the Future Korea Research Institute provided a service worth the money. It is worth raising suspicions that he provided illegal public opinion polls to President Yoon and his wife and that he was paid for meddling in the nomination in return.

In addition, various statements have been secured that Mrs. Kim gave a money bag to Mr. Myung. For example, Kang Hye-kyung or Kim Tae-yeol, former director of the Future Korea Research Institute, said, "Myeong received a money bag containing 5 million won from Kim Geon-hee, and the money bag was Kobana Content." In connection with this, circumstantial evidence has also been suggested that the money bag has already been spotted on Myung's mobile phone. If so, considering these various circumstances, didn't President Yoon and his wife receive free public opinion polls? That in itself is a kind of political fund. The form of political funds is not just money, but it can be said to be a violation of the Political Funds Act if you are provided with certain benefits regardless of your property. Did you receive an illegal public opinion survey related to it? The Democratic Party filed an additional complaint to the effect that this itself was a violation of the Political Fund Act.

[Anchor]
Kang Hye-kyung's lawyers asked the court to preserve evidence of the mobile phone used by the president and his wife, but this is the same as asking for confiscation?

[Park Sung-bae]
Application for preservation of evidence is a process of applying to a judge when there are circumstances in which it is difficult to secure evidence in the future if the evidence is not preserved in advance. It is a request for a witness examination of the seizure and search before the trial proceeds, but in fact, from the prosecution's point of view, it is enough to get a search warrant and search. This system is actually designed for suspects or defendants. There is no way to secure someone's evidence because the suspect or the accused do not have the right to investigate. At this time, you can use the power of the judge to apply for evidence preservation when you need to secure evidence in advance. Kang Hye-kyung's side can be said to be some of the suspects in the case, and the suspect Kang Hye-kyung asked the judge to preserve the evidence in advance, and the evidence to be preserved is the mobile phone of President Yoon's husband and wife, who recently mentioned that President Yoon and his wife would change their mobile phones. Although he/she could not secure Myung's golden phone on his/her old mobile phone, there is a very high possibility that the details of the conversation with Myung exist, so he/she applied for the preservation of evidence to secure the data in advance.

[Anchor]
It's called the cell phone and golden phone of the Myung Tae-kyun you mentioned, but it's still in limbo. You think the prosecution is going to prosecute this further, right?

[Park Sung-bae]
As the prosecution prosecutes Myung Tae-kyun today, it is expected to add an evidence destruction teacher or an act of concealing evidence. Earlier, Myung Tae-kyun acknowledged the existence of the golden phone, but insisted that he threw it away through his brother-in-law, and the prosecution raided his brother-in-law's house in September, but the golden phone was not found. It is likely that he will be prosecuted further on charges of concealing evidence or concealing evidence, and lawyer Myung Tae-kyun made this statement to reporters yesterday when he entered the prosecution's investigation. If Myung Tae-kyun still has his cell phone, he does not need to submit it to the prosecution.

He has said that he will submit it to the public through the media, directly to the court, or to the Democratic Party seeking to acquire the government. He put the premise that it was his personal opinion.Ma still seems to judge that the prosecution's investigation is unilaterally running against him by the logic of power. If we mention the fact that the golden phone exists, we expected the investigation to control the level to some extent, but it is not. If so, there is no need to present a golden phone to the prosecution that has prejudices against them. The possibility of becoming a kind of public interest informant by presenting this golden phone to the public can be fully considered, and by submitting this golden phone to the court, it is read as a willingness to receive considerable sentencing reduction judgment for the status of reporting related facts.

[Anchor]
Attention is also focused on the whereabouts of the golden phone. There are now talks about the possibility that Myung Tae-kyun may have influenced the selection of Changwon National Industrial Complex, but it means that Myung knew this before the candidate site was announced. According to a media report yesterday, it has also been confirmed that an acquaintance of Myeong bought land near the candidate site worth 3 billion won. [Park Sung-bae] Myung Tae-kyun is also suspected of intervening in the designation of Changwon National Industrial Complex, and there is also a rumor that an acquaintance used the information to obtain property gains. An acquaintance of Myung Tae-kyun confirmed that he bought 800 million won worth of land around the planned site and used private information, and when I checked, it was found that the acquaintance purchased a total of 3 billion won through joint equity investment.

Of course, this acquaintance is sticking to the purpose that he purchased the land for rural housing development and has nothing to do with Myung Tae-kyun. However, this part may constitute a violation of the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act. Not only if a public official provides confidential information or undisclosed information of his or her public institution to allow a third party to acquire property gains, but also if a third party acquires property gains by receiving relevant information, all land acquired using this information will be confiscated if the charges are proven. The related investigation is proceeding at a fairly rapid pace in the prosecution.

[Anchor]
Former lawmaker Kim Young-sun is also embroiled in suspicions of real estate speculation in this regard. The circumstances revealed that the younger brothers purchased land nearby, right?

[Park Sung-bae]
The announcement of the selection of candidates for the Changwon National Industrial Complex was made in March last year. However, about 40 days ago, former lawmaker Kim Young-sun's younger brother's wife purchased a house about 2km away from the candidate site. However, another younger brother of former lawmaker Kim set up a collateral security right for half of the purchase price. In other words, Kim's younger brother's wife and another younger brother jointly purchased the land, and suspicions have been raised that Myung was previously briefed by Changwon city officials about the selection of the industrial complex at Kim's office. Of course, former lawmaker Kim denies that his younger siblings bought a house to return to their hometown after retirement, but he did not know about it at all.The prosecution is conducting a related search and seizure. Not only the residence of the younger brothers, but also the seizure and search of Gyeongsangnam-do and Changwon-si have been completed.

[Anchor]
If the prosecution indicts these two in custody today, what direction will the investigation proceed after that?

[Park Sung-bae]
In fact, the suspicion of Myung Tae-kyun consists of three major axes. It consists of three pillars: the violation of the Political Fund Act between Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun, the violation of the Political Fund Act between Myung Tae-kyun and local election candidates, and furthermore, the alleged illegal public opinion survey and nomination intervention between Myung Tae-kyun and President Yoon Suk Yeol's wife. Not only does Kim Young-sun's intervention in the nomination of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun appear to be related to the receipt of certain funds from former lawmaker Kim Young-sun, but there are also suspicions that the money itself received from the prospective candidates was used in a poll related to President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife. First of all, Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun will be arrested and charged with violating the Political Fund Act.There is a high possibility that the investigation will proceed due to various suspicions such as related nomination intervention and illegal public opinion polls, and an all-round investigation is scheduled not only of politicians involved in the nomination intervention process, but also of related suspicions such as the purchase of Changwon National Industrial Complex.

[Anchor]
The prosecution's investigation is expected to speed up further in the future. I was with lawyer Park Sung-bae. Thank you.