Chung Yu-yeon, the daughter of Choi Seo-won (formerly Choi Soon-sil), who is in custody on fraud charges, appealed for help from the public, saying her children are struggling to make ends meet.
On the 21st, Chung posted a handwritten letter and a bank account number for donations on her social media through an acquaintance. Chung, who is currently being held at Uijeongbu Prison in Gyeonggi Province, said in the letter, "It has already been nine weeks since I last saw the faces of my three sons or heard their voices," and "Even the home where the children live is on the verge of being forcibly executed, so they have nowhere to go." She added, "Please help just this once so the children do not have to go to an orphanage."
In particular, Chung said, "My heart breaks at the news that a child who has not adjusted to life without their mother has been crying through the night for two months," and added, "I cannot stop thinking about the children, who are in the first and second grades of elementary school." She also raised an issue of political fairness regarding her detention, saying, "If I were on the left, would public opinion have been this quiet when a mother of three was detained like this?"
Along with Chung's letter that day, a handwritten appeal from her mother, Choi Seo-won, was also released. Choi said, "All the things that happened because of my wrongdoing feel like a punishment handed down to my three young grandchildren and my daughter, and I feel like dying," adding, "No one in our family is currently able to earn money on the outside, so the rent is in arrears, and my grandchildren have even received an eviction order from the court."
Choi went on to ask rhetorically, "My daughter is trying to repay the debt; if the detention investigation continues, how can she pay it back?" and said, "I hope you will give hope to the child and my daughter who are in pain."
From Nov. 2022 to Sept. 2023, Chung allegedly borrowed about 698 million won from an acquaintance and did not repay it. At the time, Chung was said to have borrowed the money on the grounds that she needed funds for lobbying for her mother's pardon, hospital bills, attorney expenses and the like. However, the acquaintance who lent the money filed a complaint in Aug. 2024, saying Chung used the funds for personal purposes, including visits to entertainment establishments.
The Namyangju South Police Station in Gyeonggi Province, which investigated the case, sent Chung to the prosecution in March last year, and the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office Namyangju Branch indicted her without detention on fraud charges. During the trial, Chung repeatedly cited reasons for nonappearance, and the court ultimately issued a detention warrant, leading to her being held at Uijeongbu Prison.