Police launched a compulsory investigation into the University of Incheon's alleged preferential hiring of Yoo Seong-min's daughter, Yoo Dam.
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency said on the 23rd in the morning that it sent investigators to the University of Incheon and executed a search and seizure warrant.
According to police, the search warrant is said to specify a violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act for one of the 23 people accused in the case. Police were said to have secured documents related to Professor Yoo's hiring from places including the University of Incheon's Department of Trade office.
Earlier, on Nov. 4 last year, police received a complaint and have been investigating 23 people, including University of Incheon President Lee In-jae, the Academic Affairs personnel team, hiring review committee members, and those in charge of managing hiring records, on suspicion of violating the Public Records Management Act.
The complainant argued that Professor Yoo's hiring process was unfair and raised an issue that the University of Incheon did not keep hiring-related documents that must be permanently preserved under the "new appointment guidelines for full-time faculty."
Professor Yoo passed the University of Incheon's new full-time faculty recruitment in the second semester last year and was appointed a professor in the Department of Trade at the College of Global Economics and Politics, after which allegations of favoritism were raised during the National Assembly audit.
At the time, the office of Jin Sun-mi of the Democratic Party of Korea said through reference materials, "The University of Incheon's Department of Trade conducted four rounds of full-time faculty recruitment even before Professor Yoo's appointment but did not hire anyone because there were no applicants who met the conditions," and added, "According to Article 36 of the new appointment guidelines for full-time faculty, hiring-related documents must be preserved permanently, but applicant information and related documents had all been deleted."
In response, the University of Incheon said the hiring review was conducted fairly in accordance with internal guidelines and guides, denying the favoritism allegations.