Kim Keon-hee's older brother, Kim Jin-woo, will undergo a court review for a detention warrant on the 19th over allegations of preferential treatment in the Gongheung District development in Yangpyeong.
According to legal sources on the 17th, Seoul Central District Court Director General Judge Jeong Jae-uk, in charge of warrants, will hold a pre-arrest suspect questioning (substantive warrant review) for Kim at around 10:10 a.m. on the 19th. The result could come out as early as that evening.
The special prosecutor investigating allegations related to Kim Keon-hee sought an arrest warrant for Kim on the 14th on charges of loss of state funds under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, as well as embezzlement and breach of trust in the course of duty, and destruction of evidence. However, for the mother, Choi Eun-sun, who faces the same charges, the team decided to investigate her without detention, considering her relationship with Kim as mother and child and the degree of involvement in the crimes. Choi is said to have submitted an Alzheimer's diagnosis to the special prosecutor.
Kim and Choi, who successively managed the developer ESI&D, are suspected of trying to reduce development charges by inflating construction costs and fabricating documents to lower profits, even though they built an apartment complex of 350 households in the Gongheung District of Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, from 2011 to 2016 and posted about 80 billion won in sales. There are also suspicions that various items believed to have been improperly received by Kim were hidden at the family home.
They were summoned together to the special prosecutor on the 4th and on the 11th and were questioned for about 12 hours each, during which they reportedly denied most of the charges.
On the 31st of last month, the special prosecutor also summoned and questioned Kim Chung-sik—known as Choi's business partner and a close associate of the family—as a suspect on charges of loss of state funds under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. The special prosecutor believes Kim was deeply involved in ESI&D's exemption from development charges.
People Power Party lawmaker Kim Seon-kyo, who was Yangpyeong County chief when the project was underway, is also under investigation, including a search and seizure of his National Assembly office and home in Jul.