The arrest warrant requested for An Bu-su, head of the Asia-Pacific Peace Exchange Association, who is accused of receiving valuables worth 100 million won in connection with the "SSANGBANGWOOL remittance to North Korea" case, was dismissed.
Nam Se-jin, Director General and judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, conducted a pre-arrest suspect examination (substantive warrant review) for An on the 10th and dismissed the arrest warrant requested by the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office.
The court said, "The suspect acknowledges the objective facts, and the basic evidence has also been collected," adding, "Considering comprehensively the fixed residence and family ties, the course of the investigation and appearance, the fact that all damage has been recovered, and the suspect's health, it is difficult at this stage to recognize the grounds and reasonableness for arrest."
On the same day, arrest warrants requested for Bang Yong-cheol, former SSANGBANGWOOL vice chair, and a former director surnamed Park, who also underwent a substantive warrant review, were dismissed. While some or a considerable part of the criminal allegations are substantiated, the view is that it is difficult to recognize the necessity of an arrest investigation at this stage.
Earlier, the human rights infringement inspection task force (TF) at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office requested an arrest warrant for An on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust. It requested an arrest warrant for the former vice chair Bang for occupational embezzlement, and for the former director Park for obstruction of the performance of official duties by fraudulent means.
Prosecutors believe the SSANGBANGWOOL side bribed An to serve as a trial witness and provided various conveniences and financial benefits to An and his family with company funds to induce him to recant his testimony.
It was found that from March 2023 for about 2 years and 8 months, Bang and others provided an officetel to An's daughter and paid her rent and deposit on her behalf, delivering 72.8 million won. They also allegedly made it appear that An's daughter was employed by a SSANGBANGWOOL affiliate and paid 27.05 million won in the form of false wages.
Prosecutors also applied the charge of obstruction of the performance of official duties by fraudulent means on the grounds that on May 17, 2023, the former director Park brought soju into an interrogation room at the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office. The allegation is that the security staff was deceived into thinking it was water, not soju. Prosecutors also added an occupational breach of trust charge to the warrant, saying that salmon and alcohol provided then to former SSANGBANGWOOL chair Kim Sung-tae and others were paid with SSANGBANGWOOL's corporate card, causing losses to the company.
Prosecutors believe the SSANGBANGWOOL side tried to influence An's statements and testimony. An was first arrested in Nov. 2022 over the remittance to North Korea case. The following Jan., An appeared at the trial over former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young's remittance to the North and said to the effect that "I do not know well about the connection with Gyeonggi Province (regarding the remittance to the North)."
However, at a trial three months later, when asked by prosecutors, "Do you know whether the SSANGBANGWOOL Group delivered to North Korea the 'expenses for Lee Jae-myung, the Gyeonggi governor, to visit the North'?" An said, "I heard from a North Korean contact that the North initially demanded $5 million (as Lee's visit expense) and then lowered it to either $2 million or $3 million."
The court dismissed the arrest warrant for the former director Park, citing "the degree of substantiation of the criminal allegations and the room for dispute over them." As a result, the investigation that followed into the "Suwon District Prosecutors' Office salmon and alcohol party inducement allegations" appears likely to face setbacks.
Earlier, former Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young argued in Apr. last year through court testimony and other means during the remittance-to-the-North investigation that prosecutors "arranged a setting where alcohol and outside food would be brought in to induce cooperation in order to secure testimony that implicated President Lee Jae-myung."
Afterward, Lee repeatedly reversed the date on which the drinking session allegedly took place, and the investigative team at the time said the claim was "groundless." In Sept., the Ministry of Justice ordered prosecutors to begin an inspection, and the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office saw criminal allegations and opened an investigation.