material photo” alt=”Gwangmyeong·Siheung district area. Gwangmyeong·Siheung district area. <한겨레> Material photo
The police investigation of allegations of speculation in Gwangmyeong and Siheung new towns by employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) is accelerating, and suspicions of speculation by public officials such as Gwangmyeong City and Siheung City, Gyeonggi Province are rising, but it is unknown whether it will lead to actual punishment. The investigative agency must prove the business relevance or that they used internal information to speculate, because in reality it is not easy. Analysis emerges that the key is to find out who has handed over undisclosed information to them. In summary, on the 10th, the laws and regulations that can prevent or punish speculation by public officials or executives and employees of public institutions in housing site development are largely defined as the Anti-Corruption and the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Civil Rights Commission (Corruption Prevention Act) It is a special law (public special law). The Anti-Corruption Act prevents public officials from gaining property or property gains by using secrets learned during business processing. The Special Act on Public Housing also prohibits the use of information learned during business processing for different purposes. For this reason, lawyers point out that proving’work relevance’ is the key to the investigation. The allegations can be proved only when the information learned while working on the designation of a new city can be used to obtain private interests in the land, or to capture the circumstances in which the land has been gained by having a third party buy the land. Under the Anti-Corruption Act, imprisonment for not more than 7 years or a fine of 50 million won or less may be imposed, as well as confiscation or additional collection of acquired property or property profits. The level of punishment under the Public Special Law is imprisonment for up to 5 years or a fine of up to 50 million won. The problem is that it is not easy to prove job relevance and use of undisclosed information unless an LH employee who is suspected of speculation or public officials in Gwangmyeong and Siheung city has not done work related to the designation of a new city. In fact, in the case of LH employees, it is known that many of them did compensation work in the metropolitan area, not designated as a new city. Attorney Tae-geun Kim (Chairman of the Minsaeng Economy Committee, a group of lawyers for the democratic society) said, “If the LH employees in question claim that it is not a business secret for the Gwangmyeong and Siheung new towns (for district designation) and say,’I only did compensation work’, the current law punishment It can be difficult,” he said. “If an employee of a corporation uses internal information to speculate regardless of his or her job, it is a violation of the obligation to prevent conflicts of interest under the ethical law of public officials. Said. An attorney from the prosecution with a lot of investigative experience said, “It seems that it is very difficult to find evidence and to prove it in an actual court that we have leaked official secrets or speculated with information obtained in business.” It may only be the degree of violation of administrative laws that can be applied when land is acquired with a false title and a new name for acquisition,” he predicted. Accordingly, it is predicted that the key to the investigation will be to determine who has leaked undisclosed development information to employees who are currently suspected of speculation, and to what extent the extent of the information leaked. This is because both the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport or the LH employee who told the story that a new city will be established, or the employee who dumped the ground after hearing this, can be punished. In the end, it is the police’s priority to understand how the LH employee, who is suspected of speculation, has made investments. An attorney who used to be a prosecutor said, “In the case of bribery, the business relevance must be strictly proved, but the scope of the work related to the use of undisclosed information like this LH case can be seen more broadly.” Whether the information was leaked, and it will be to reveal the connection between the information and the content of the dumping.” A deputy prosecutor of the local prosecutor’s office said, “The investigation should have preceded the government investigation,” he said. “After going through the government investigation, employees can match up or stubbornly deny the charges.” By Jang Ye-ji, staff reporter [email protected]