Prosecutors appealed after former lawmaker Kwak Sang-do and his son, accused of taking bribes, received a dismissal of indictment and a not-guilty verdict at the trial court.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said on the 12th that after reviewing the evidence and applicable law regarding the first-trial verdict in the case involving violations of the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment tied to the Daejang-dong affair by former lawmaker Kwak and others, it decided to file an appeal against all defendants.
Prosecutors said they appealed because they determined the trial court's ruling was based on factual misapprehension and misinterpretation of law. They also noted they took into account the need for a unified judgment with the appellate proceedings in the prior case against former lawmaker Kwak for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (bribery), among others.
The 23rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Oh Se-yong) earlier dismissed the indictment against former lawmaker Kwak, who had been charged with violations of the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment, among other offenses. The court also acquitted his son, Byung-chae, who had been accused of bribery and concealment of criminal proceeds under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, who was indicted on charges of concealment of criminal proceeds, brokerage bribery, and violations of the Political Funds Act, was fined 5 million won.
At the time, the panel ruled to dismiss the indictment against former lawmaker Kwak, finding the prosecution's filing to be an abuse of prosecutorial authority. Although the issues could be litigated in the appellate proceedings of the prior case against former lawmaker Kwak and Kim, the court said the new indictment in this case appeared intended to obtain two de facto first-instance judgments and overturn the earlier one. The court said, "As a result, former lawmaker Kwak and Kim suffered a substantive disadvantage in that they had to undergo two trial-court determinations."
Former lawmaker Kwak was brought to trial in 2022 on charges of receiving 2.5 billion won through his son, Byung-chae, in return for helping with business at the request of Kim, but was acquitted in Feb. the following year. At the time, the court found it difficult to conclude that the money Byung-chae received from Hwacheon Daeyu was received by former lawmaker Kwak.
However, after the trial court's ruling, prosecutors said they newly established through additional investigation that former lawmaker Kwak and his son had colluded and that the scale of the funds received had increased, and they filed additional charges against former lawmaker Kwak, while also bringing Byung-chae and Kim to trial.