▲ The Suwon District Prosecutors Office (Yonhap)

election watchdog-raid

Prosecutors raid election watchdog over alleged illegal donations to Lee

SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors on Friday raided the National Election Commission (NEC) over suspicions that opposition leader Lee Jae-myung accepted a large amount of political donations exceeding the legal limit from an underwear tycoon during his party's presidential primary in 2021.

The Suwon District Prosecutors Office sent prosecutors and investigators to the NEC head office in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, in the morning to search and seize documents related to the suspicions, including a list of donors for Democratic Party (DP) primary candidates.

The raid came after Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group, disclosed in a court hearing on Aug. 22 that he donated about 150 million won (US$112,500) to Lee during the DP presidential primary.

Kim insisted that he divided the donation into many small amounts and sent them in the name of many people, including company employees, to the Lee camp. Under the Political Fund Law, the maximum amount that can be donated to a primary candidate is set at 10 million won per person.

Kim, who has been imprisoned on embezzlement and other charges since early this year, also said he made similar donations, worth several tens of millions of won, to Lee during his competition in the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial primary in 2018. The tycoon then argued that Lee was aware of his donations.

He made the revelation appearing as a witness in the court hearing on former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young's bribery charges. It also came one day before DP chairman Lee is scheduled to show up at the Suwon prosecution Saturday for questioning regarding allegations that Kim illegally wired $8 million to North Korea on his behalf.

(END)

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]