Former special counsel Park Young-soo was arrested Thursday over corruption allegations connected to a high-profile property development scandal.
The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Park, who is suspected of taking 800 million won (US$616,475) from private developers in return for helping them land a deal to develop the Daejang-dong district in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, while he served as the chair of the Woori Bank board of directors from 2014-15.
Prosecutors suspect 300 million won of the total went to Park while he was running for chairman of the Korean Bar Association in 2015 while the rest was separately given to him the same year in return for issuing Woori Bank’s letter of intent to extend a loan in favor of the private developers’ company Hwacheon Daeyu.
Park is also one of several prominent figures in the “5 billion club,” who were allegedly promised 5 billion won each by asset management firm Hwacheon Daeyu, along with former ruling party lawmaker Kwak Sang-do and former Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam.
Park attended his detention hearing at the court in southern Seoul on Thursday morning. He remained silent to a barrage of questions by reporters, only saying, “I am sorry again. I will tell everything as it is at the court room.”
It is the second time prosecutors have sought a warrant to arrest Park in connection with the corruption scandal. The court had denied the previous warrant request a month earlier, citing room for dispute regarding the bribery allegations and the need to guarantee the suspect’s right to a defense.
Prosecutors have since added new charges against Park of taking 1.1 billion won from Hwacheon Daeyu between 2019 and 2021 in the form of short-term loans to his daughter and applied for a warrant again.
Park rose to fame after investigating a corruption scandal involving the ousted former President Park Geun-hye as a special counsel in 2017.
Source: Yonhap News Agency