The case of alleged unpaid severance at Coupang Fulfillment Services (CFS), which the standing special prosecutor failed to conclude, has been transferred to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO).
According to legal sources on the 12th, the Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (headed by prosecutor Kim Ho-kyung) transferred part of the Coupang-related case it received from the standing special prosecutor at the end of last month and was currently investigating to the CIO. The transfer is said to include cases in which incumbent prosecutors, including Um Hee-jun, were booked as suspects.
The alleged unpaid severance case at Coupang involves CFS, a Coupang subsidiary, allegedly withholding severance pay in May 2023 by changing workplace rules in a way disadvantageous to daily workers.
Questions of external pressure on the investigation were also raised over the Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office's decision not to indict in the case. The standing special prosecutor indicted then Bucheon Branch Chief Um Hee-jun and others on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, saying the Bucheon Branch leadership instructed the case's lead prosecutor to exclude the immediate superior, then Criminal Division 3 Chief Moon Ji-seok at the Bucheon Branch, in the process of reporting the non-indictment decision to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
However, based on search and seizure results, the standing special prosecutor did not reach conclusions on matters including intentional omission and Um's alleged perjury at the National Assembly, and after the investigation period ended in March, transferred the case to the Central District Prosecutors' Office.
Meanwhile, in the "alleged loss of the band for the sealed bundles of banknotes," which the standing special prosecutor transferred to the prosecution without a non-indictment disposition, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office is continuing the remaining investigation.