Police are investigating allegations that Special Counsel Min Joong-ki profited more than 100 million won by trading stocks using nonpublic information from an unlisted company. Police are also investigating allegations that the extreme choice made by a Yangpyeong County official who was questioned as a suspect by the special counsel was due to coercive questioning.
On the 28th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Director General Jang Jun-ho) sent the case against Special Counsel Min, who was accused of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act and abuse of power and obstruction of another's rights, to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. The cases filed against three investigators who questioned the recently deceased Yangpyeong County official identified as A, the investigation team leader, and Special Counsel Investigator Moon Hong-ju were also transferred to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
An official at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said in a phone call with ChosunBiz that "a complaint was also filed with police around the same time, and police began the investigation first," adding, "We determined it would be better for efficiency to transfer the case to police." Earlier, on the 23rd, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it is currently investigating Special Counsel Min's case at the Jongno Police Station.
Earlier, People Power Party lawmakers filed a complaint on the 22nd accusing Special Counsel Min of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act. Special Counsel Min bought unlisted shares in 2000, when the solar company Neosemitech was established, spending 40 million won. He then sold the shares he held just before the company was delisted amid an accounting fraud controversy, reaping more than 100 million won in profit. The company's CEO and outside directors were classmates of Special Counsel Min at Daejeon High School. Under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act, one must not use nonpublic material information related to company business for the trading of specific securities or other transactions.
Special Counsel Min and members of the special counsel team were also accused of abuse of power and obstruction of another's rights. In the course of investigating allegations surrounding the Yangpyeong Gongheung District project involving first lady Kim Keon-hee's family, they summoned a person surnamed Jeong for questioning on the 2nd, and Jeong was found dead at home eight days after the questioning ended. The deceased left a note to the effect that "I am tormented because I gave false testimony due to the special counsel's coercion and inducement." If false testimony was in fact elicited through coercive questioning, that could constitute the special counsel's abuse of authority interfering with Jeong's exercise of rights. Under the Criminal Act, a perpetrator of abuse of authority may face up to five years in prison, up to 10 years of suspension of qualifications, or a fine of up to 10 million won.
Meanwhile, Special Counsel Min has explained regarding the stock transaction allegations that "there was no illegality." In addition, the special counsel's office, which had been conducting its own fact-finding into allegations that the deceased Jeong was subjected to coercive questioning, recently converted the probe into a formal audit.