Prosecutors cleared former Supreme Court Justice Cho Jae-yeon of bribery allegations after he was named as "that person" in recordings of private developers tied to the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal.
According to legal sources on the 20th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 3 (headed by Director General Kim Jin-yong) decided not to indict the former justice on the 14th in a bribery case under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and closed the investigation. The reason was insufficient evidence.
The former justice faced suspicion of being "that person" mentioned in recordings by private developer Kim Man-bae and accountant Jung Young-hak, who were implicated in the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal. At the time, the recordings captured Kim saying, "Everyone knows Cheonhwa-dongin No. 1 is not mine. Half of it belongs to that person."
In Feb. 2022, after the recordings in question were made public, a civic group filed a bribery complaint against the former justice with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), and the CIO transferred the case to prosecutors. At the time, the former justice denied the related allegations, saying, "I do not know Mr. Kim."
Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 3 also recently dismissed a case in which President Lee Jae-myung was accused of breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes in connection with lobbying allegations involving Optimus Asset Management.