The prosecution indicted Lee Mo (72), a former classmate and relative of former President Moon Jae-in, on suspicion of receiving about 1 billion won in bribes from a coast guard vessel equipment company while assisting the promotion of former Coast Guard Administrator Kim Hong-hee.
On the 3rd, the 5th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Director General Kim Tae-hun) stated that Lee was indicted without detention for violating the attorney-at-law statute and the Specific Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act (bribery). The construction contractor Park Mo (67), who built former President Moon's residence in Busan, was also indicted for bribery for receiving about 300 million won in bribes in exchange for favors.
According to the prosecution, Lee, a traditional medicine doctor, is known to be a classmate of former President Moon Jae-in from middle and high school. It is also reported that Lee's spouse is a cousin of Kim Jung-sook, the First Lady. Lee is suspected of receiving 1,028,160,000 won from company A, a coast guard vessel equipment firm, from September 2019 to February 2023.
The prosecution believes that company A requested Lee for the promotion of former Coast Guard Administrator Kim, who was an executive in the coast guard. Kim was appointed as the Coast Guard Administrator in 2020 under the Moon Jae-in administration. He made headlines for skipping the rank of Chief Superintendent and being promoted directly to Chief Commissioner in a two-rank leap.
Company A supplied engines for the Donghae-class project in July 2020, after Kim took office, and secured another project for the 서해-class the following year. The prosecution claims Kim helped company A by changing the vessel design so that the design for the Donghae-class, for which A was already supplying engines, could also be applied to the 서해-class.
Construction contractor Park, who was indicted without detention, is suspected of receiving about 344,960,000 won from company B, the headquarters of company A, from June 2020 to November 2021. The prosecution believes Park received the money in exchange for requesting a government official to cover up a naval audit regarding engine defects and to reassign a naval colonel involved in the matter.
The allegations of bribery against the two were newly detected during the prosecution's investigation into the coastal corruption case involving former Administrator Kim Hong-hee. Earlier, civic group Free Korea National Defense Corps reported former Administrator Kim and others in December 2022, stating that the average speed of a 3,000-ton-class vessel is 28 knots, yet the coast guard ordered it with a performance reduced to 24 knots.
The police, who initially investigated the case, reported that former Administrator Kim received about 37,000,000 won in bribes from an engine supplier during the coast guard vessel bidding process from 2020 to 2021 and referred the case to the prosecution. The prosecution confirmed that some of the revenue from company A and others flowed to a shell corporation. This shell corporation is a company in which Lee and Park are shareholders.
Meanwhile, the prosecution indicted former Administrator Kim on charges of abuse of power, bribery and other offenses, bribery promises, and violating the Public Officials Ethics Act. The prosecution reported that the amount of bribery received by Kim related to company A was 47,900,000 won. They also indicted three officials from company A without detention on charges of bribery.