Former Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ahn Min-seok was ordered to pay 20 million won in damages for spreading false information about Choi Seo-won (formerly Choi Soon-sil).
According to legal sources on the 14th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Seo Kyung-hwan) on the 2nd finalized, by dismissing without a hearing, the lower court ruling that partially sided with Choi in the retrial of the damages suit Choi filed against the former lawmaker.
Earlier, Choi filed suit on Apr. 2021 seeking 100 million won in damages, saying the former lawmaker spread false information in 2016–2017 that harmed her. The former lawmaker claimed during the Park Geun-hye abuse-of-power scandal that Choi hid 300 trillion won of Park Chung-hee's slush funds. He even traveled to Europe saying he would track down the hidden funds.
After the suit was filed, the former lawmaker's side did nothing, and the first trial court ruled for the plaintiff without argument. The former lawmaker appealed, and the appellate court ruled for the defendant, saying the allegations he raised had public interest.
In June 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling and sent the case back to the Seoul Southern District Court. It found that some of the former lawmaker's remarks—such as "money from Company A deposited into a Swiss secret account is connected to Choi" and "Choi met with the head of a U.S. defense contractor and profited"—could constitute defamation.
The Supreme Court also said, "The former lawmaker claims to have received tips about each remark, but there are no materials showing the existence of the tips," adding, "No specific circumstantial materials were presented to support the content of the remarks."
On remand, the Seoul Southern District Court ordered the former lawmaker to pay Choi 20 million won. The bench found that "without clearly stating the basis, he acted as if he had investigated directly, contributing to raising the level of criticism against Choi."
The former lawmaker was also indicted on a charge of defaming Choi (violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection). In the first trial last July, Ahn was fined 3 million won and has appealed.
The former lawmaker ran in the Gyeonggi superintendent of education election held concurrently with the June 3 local elections. A unity primary for the progressive camp is underway, and rival preliminary candidate Yoo Eun-hye (former Minister of the Ministry of Education) demanded an apology, saying the former lawmaker distorted and released opinion poll results.