Daegu Dong-gu District Chief Yoon Seok-jun's election was nullified after Yoon made an expenditure for election expense from an account not reported to the election commission during the 2022 local elections.
The Supreme Court's Third Division (presiding Justice Noh Kyung-pil) on the 12th affirmed the lower court ruling that fined District Chief Yoon 2 million won for violating the Political Funds Act.
If an elected public official's fine of 1 million won or more for violating the Political Funds Act is finalized, the election is nullified under the Public Official Election Act.
Ahead of the June 1, 2022 local elections, District Chief Yoon used an automated teller machine (ATM) at a bank branch to make seven expenditures totaling 26.65 million won in election expense from Yoon's own account that was not reported to the election commission. The amount was used to send promotional text messages.
The first trial fined District Chief Yoon 2 million won. The first trial court said, "It is presumed that the purpose was to evade regulations on automatic simultaneous communications (auto-transmission programs) amid the intense intra-party primary at the time, rather than due to mere ignorance of the law."
The second trial also upheld the first trial's finding. During the second trial, District Chief Yoon argued that because the promotional text message transmission expense was made as an expenditure from Yoon's deposits account, the portion regarding election expense revenue (收入) should be not guilty. The second trial court did not accept this, saying, "Even if election expense was made as an expenditure from one's deposits account, when election expense is made without going through the reported deposits account, it should be deemed that the revenue and expenditure of the election expense occurred simultaneously."
The Supreme Court also accepted the lower court, saying, "It is reasonable that the first trial found guilty the portion of 'election expense revenue not through the reported deposits account.'"