Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was sentenced to life in prison on charges of leading an insurrection, was found to have received more than 1.2 billion won in commissary funds during eight months of incarceration.
According to deposit records for custodial funds submitted by the Ministry of Justice to Kim Yong-min, a lawmaker with the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 1st, the former president received 1.26236 trillion won in commissary funds from July 10 last year, when he was re-detained, through Feb. 15. That is 4.6 times more than President Lee Jae-myung's annual salary this year of 271.77 million won.
During this period, the former president withdrew commissary funds 358 times, an average of 1.4 times per day. Commissary funds are used by inmates to buy daily necessities or food while incarcerated. The per-person holding limit is 4 million won, but there is no limit on the number of deposits or withdrawals.
Kim Keon-hee, the former president's wife, who is being held at the Seoul Southern Detention Center, is estimated to have received 97.39 million won in commissary funds from Aug. 12 last year through Feb. 15.
Some say commissary funds can be used as a form of unofficial political donations. While political donations have caps, commissary funds do not. Commissary funds are taxed, but there are limits on the tax authorities' ability to check individuals' commissary remittance records.