The second special counsel team filed for an arrest warrant for Commissioner Yu Byung-ho, who is accused of improperly intervening in the audit of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's presidential residence transfer construction. Yu, who served as secretary general of the Board of Audit and Inspection during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, is suspected of downplaying or covering up the audit findings related to the residence transfer.
The second special counsel team (Special Prosecutor Kwon Chang-young) said on the 14th that it sought an arrest warrant for Commissioner Yu on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of the exercise of rights. It came a day after summoning Yu as a suspect for questioning. Abuse of power and obstruction of the exercise of rights applies when a public official improperly uses authority to compel someone to do something they are not obligated to do or to interfere with the exercise of their rights.
The special counsel believes Yu improperly intervened in the process of downplaying or concealing the audit findings on the presidential office and residence transfer while serving as secretary general of the Board of Audit and Inspection. The team concluded that the Board of Audit and Inspection identified key suspicions in the residence transfer construction process but failed to properly include them in the audit report.
Former President Yoon Suk-yeol moved the presidential office to the Ministry of National Defense compound in Yongsan and the residence to the foreign minister's official residence in Hannam-dong right after winning the election in Mar. 2022. In Oct. of the same year, a civic group filed a public audit request over suspicions surrounding the residence transfer, prompting the Board of Audit and Inspection to begin an audit. The audit lasted about two years.
In Sep. 2024, the Board of Audit and Inspection released an audit report on the presidential office and residence transfer. The report said the former president's side tentatively decided on the foreign minister's official residence as the residence transfer site and selected "21gram" as the interior contractor.
The report also said the presidential secretariat confirmed that the construction plan drawings included a small-scale expansion and asked 21gram to find a firm qualified for expansion work, and that 21gram asked a company holding the relevant license to take part in the expansion.
But as it became known that 21gram handled not only simple interior work but the overall construction, allegations of a shoddy audit emerged. 21gram is known to have ties with first lady Kim Keon-hee. Critics also said the circumstances under which the firm undertook the residence work without a general construction license were not sufficiently explained.
At the time, the Board of Audit and Inspection acknowledged that all contractor selections related to the presidential office and residence transfer were made through private contracts. A private contract is a method of contracting with a specific company without competitive bidding. However, the board concluded it was hard to deem the practice illegal.
The special counsel suspects the Board of Audit and Inspection identified the actual scope of 21gram's work and its licensing issue during the audit but did not properly reflect that in the report. The thrust is that 21gram was involved in the overall residence construction, yet the audit report described it as if the firm handled only interior work.
Commissioner Yu denies the allegations in full. Arriving for questioning by the special counsel the day before, Yu said, "The special counsel appears to be using auditors' routine duties as material to craft a fictional scenario you wouldn't find even in movies or martial-arts pulp and to construct a non-existent crime."