Input 2021.03.07 18:39 | Revision 2021.03.07 21:04
Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport-led thorough investigation… “Concerns over my family’s care-taking investigation”
Police noodles have no experience in major economic crimes… Suspicion of investigation of irregularities
Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol “LH case, we need to start a massive investigation immediately”
The government organized a joint investigation team led by the Prime Minister’s Office to investigate allegations of speculation in the 3rd new town of Gwangmyeong and Siheung by employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), but it is pointed out that it is “to leave the fish to a cat”. This is because it appears to be responding to the case in which the suspicion of a public official stealing inside information and speculating on it is not a forced investigation, but a’self-investigation’ that relied on interviews with government officials of the ministry.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, when the 1st and 2nd new city corruption cases broke out, the prosecution led a massive investigation to find out the facts of abuse, including arresting 100 officials for corruption. Some point out that it is difficult to achieve results.
The prosecution reform promoted by the Democratic Party along with the Moon Jae-in administration greatly reduced the prosecution’s authority to investigate such corruption cases, and the national investigation headquarters led by the police has no experience in investigating large-scale economic corruption cases.
Regarding the government’s self-investigation policy centered on ministries, various internet communities have criticized comments stating, “If an investigation by Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, who was relegated to the Legal Affairs Training Institute, will be investigated, all the facts of corruption will be identified in two days.”
Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Minister of Strategy and Finance attended the real estate ministers’ meeting held on the 7th. “We will take measures under zero tolerance such as investigation requests and disciplinary measures.”
In fact, the government announced on the 5th that it would form a joint investigation team on allegations of speculation by LH employees in the planned area of the 3rd new city. The joint investigation team will be attended by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the National Police Agency, Gyeonggi Province, and the city of Incheon, centering on the State Affairs Control Office. However, the prosecutor’s office, which has a lot of experience in investigating corruption and has a large ability to investigate, was excluded.
The survey targets of the joint investigation team are 6 new towns in the 3rd phase promoted by the current government (Changneung in Goyang, Siheung in Gwangmyeong, Wangsuk in Namyangju, Daejang in Bucheon, Gyeyang in Incheon, Gyosan in Hanam), and 8 in Gwacheon district and Jangsang district in Ansan. The subjects of the survey were employees of public corporations involved in the creation of new cities such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and LH, and public officials in departments in charge of new cities in eight local governments, including Gyeonggi-do and Incheon, which are the third new city areas.
Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki promised a “thorough investigation” on the case, but it is not being trusted. As soon as the press conference of Deputy Prime Minister Hong was over, the association of participation and democratization lawyers (Minbyun) who raised the suspicion of this case issued a statement demanding an audit and a compulsory investigation by the Board of Audit and Inspection. The Participation Solidarity and Minbyun demanded that “in order to increase public confidence in the results of the government’s total investigation, compulsory investigation by the investigating agency or audit of the auditor should be conducted in parallel with the investigation by the government joint investigation group.”
Minister Byeon Chang-heum, who is the head of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, which forms an axis of the joint investigation team, seems to be embarrassing the LH employees who have been speculating on the ground, increasing distrust of’unbelievable’. After allegations of speculation by employees were raised, Minister Byeon said, “It seems that they did not know the development information and bought the land in advance”, “I bought it because it was not possible to develop a new city, but it seems that it was suddenly designated as a new city.” It is stupid to buy land in a new city.” Minister Byeon served as president of LH before becoming Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
◇ In the case of corruption in the 1st and 2nd new cities, the results of the prosecution’s investigation… This time, the auditor who’rebelled against the regime’ also missed
Apart from the government investigation, the police say that the police will form the first special investigation team after taking office as the National Investigation Headquarters to respond, but the prediction that it will be difficult to properly identify the structure of corruption is dominant. It is pointed out that the police lack experience in investigating large-scale economic corruption cases, and above all, it is questionable whether the current regime, which has given power to the police organization through the adjustment of the investigative powers of the speculum, will be able to produce results that may be uncomfortable.
There are also concerns that the government investigation and the investigation of noodles can be reduced to’care for my family’ or’cutting the tail’ because the prosecutors who made achievements in the first and second new town investigations will be eliminated. In the first and second new town investigations led by the prosecution in the past, large-scale corruption was discovered.
The Roh Tae-woo administration, which created the first new cities such as Ilsan and Bundang since 1989, established a joint venture in February 1990 and investigated illegal land transactions by public officials. At that time, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy caught about 13,000 speculative offenders and arrested 987 people. 131 public officials and 10 unfairly winning public officials were also caught on charges of receiving money and goods and forgery of documents.
The same is true of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which began construction of the second new towns in Gimpo, Geomdan, and Dongtan since 2003. As real estate speculation took off in these areas, the prosecution set up a joint investigation headquarters in 2005. At the time, the prosecution caught a large-scale speculative offender, including 27 public officials. It was alleged that he had given a bribe and handed over the information on the restricted area to a planning real estate company, or falsely issued a farmland acquisition qualification certificate. Some government officials have also purchased the land in groups using information on the planned development site that they have learned on the job. It is the same as the case of the LH employees in question this time.
There is also an auditor who detects and punishes corruption of public officials and public institutions in the investigation team. The Board of Audit and Inspection, led by the Auditor General Jae-hyung Choi, had a confrontation with the government due to the shutdown of the 1st Wolseong nuclear power plant.
As a result, there are doubts about the government investigation of the 3rd new urban land dumping case, including the government’s investigation of the land dumping case of the 3rd new city, and there are doubts about the reduction and negligence investigation. “Apart from the investigation of the government joint investigation team, forced investigation by investigative agencies and audits by the auditor are also conducted at the same time. It should be done,” he insisted.
◇’Prosecution reform’ was attempted to investigate corrupt public officials, but political issues were raised over fears of the investigation gap.
The reason that the prosecution was left out of the LH investigation was due to the adjustment of the prosecution and police investigation powers, which began in January this year. For this reason, the cases in which the prosecution can directly initiate an investigation are limited to six major crimes, including corruption, economy, public officials, elections, defense projects, and major disasters.
For this reason, the observation that the prosecution will not play a role in the investigation of the LH case is dominant due to the adjustment of the investigative power. “I tried to examine whether it is possible to exercise, and if so, how far the scope is,” he said. “The facts that have been revealed so far are the six major crimes in the’Regulation on the scope of the criminal investigation initiating the prosecutor’s investigation’ I can’t see it,” he explained.
Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol also said in a phone call with the Chosun Ilbo the day before, “It is a crime of the ruin that steals public information and speculates on real estate.” Like the deputy investigation, we are not going to conduct a full investigation of LH or the Blue House employee by verbally asking whether they bought the land or not, looking only at the register.
He continued, “The new city development plan and compensation plan should be thoroughly analyzed to find the land that will be money. After analyzing the time of transaction, the unit of the transaction, and the state of use of the land, the beneficial owner should be identified through the tracking of the source of funds purchased.” “It is similar to the investigation of a financial case using undisclosed information. There will be more transactions under the name of the borrower than in the real name,” he argued.