Police have sent the case of Independent lawmaker Lee Chun-seok, who is suspected of using borrowed-name stock transactions, back to prosecutors. However, it was reported that they maintained the previous finding of no charges on the allegation of using nonpublic information, which prosecutors had asked to reinvestigate.
According to police and others on the 5th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Financial Crime Investigation Unit recently resent Lee's case to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. Police determined that violations such as breaching the Real-Name Financial Transactions Act for borrowed-name transactions are substantiated, but violations such as breaching the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act for using nonpublic information are not.
In Aug. last year, Lee was caught on the floor of the National Assembly trading stocks through a securities account in an aide's name, stirring controversy. A police investigation found that from Lee's tenure as National Assembly secretary-general in 2021–2022 through last year, transactions of stocks worth 1.2 billion won were conducted under an aide's name.
In Dec. last year, while referring Lee without detention, police found no leads supporting the allegation that nonpublic information obtained during activities of the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning was used to purchase stocks. The transaction item captured by the media was an artificial intelligence (AI)–related stock, and at the time Lee was head of the economy subcommittee 2 of the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning, which was responsible for crafting AI policy.
Prosecutors found the police investigation insufficient and sent the case back in Jan. this year. They sought supplementary investigation on the borrowed-name transaction allegation and a reinvestigation on the alleged use of nonpublic information.
But the police's conclusion, issued after just over two months, did not change. Accordingly, analysis suggests that Lee's alleged use of nonpublic information has effectively entered the final stage of being closed with no charges.
Under the current Regulation on Mutual Cooperation and General Investigative Protocols between Prosecutors and Judicial Police Officers, prosecutors cannot again request a reinvestigation or demand referral of a case for which police have notified the results of a reinvestigation.