▲ Supreme Court of Korea
Park Yong-soo, 56, a former aide to former Democratic Party leader candidate Song Young-gil, has had his prison sentence finalized by the Supreme Court for violating the Political Funds Act in connection with covering the costs of past opinion polls.
Regarding the charges concerning the so-called "party convention cash envelope suspicions," he was acquitted in the appellate trial, and the prosecution subsequently withdrew its appeal, finalizing his acquittal earlier.
On June 24, the Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Lee Sook-yeon) finalized the lower court ruling that sentenced Park to a total of one year and two months in prison and ordered the forfeiture of 92.4 million won on charges including violations of the Political Funds Act.
The court upheld the guilty verdict for Park's actions in 2020, where he used funds from the Peace and Subsistence Institute (Muksayeon), a political support and advisory organization for Song, to cover 92.4 million won for primary-related opinion polls commissioned from a consulting firm, and then created false estimates to conceal it.
He was also found guilty of instructing the office manager of Muksayeon to replace all computer hard drives to prevent the discovery of related materials as media reports concerning the "pro-Moon Jae-in gate" continued.
However, charges regarding the "party convention cash envelope distribution"—alleging that he conspired with former Deputy Secretary-General Lee and others to distribute a total of 67.5 million won to get Song elected at the May 2021 Democratic Party convention—were found not guilty in both the first and second trials.
This was because the mobile phone recording files of former Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jung-geun, which triggered the investigation, were deemed unlawfully collected evidence and denied admissibility.
Both the prosecution and Park appealed the parts of the ruling that went against them, but the prosecution later withdrew its appeal.
As a result, the acquittal regarding the cash envelopes was finalized first, while the guilty portion underwent review. The Supreme Court dismissed Park's appeal, concluding there were no errors in the lower court's judgment.
Song was also put on trial for allegations of distributing cash envelopes and accepting illegal political funds, receiving a two-year prison sentence in the first trial, but was acquitted on all counts in the second trial.
Similarly, this was because the court did not recognize the evidentiary admissibility of the recording files of former Deputy Secretary-General Lee, which had sparked the investigation.
With the prosecution giving up its appeal, Song's acquittal was finalized in February of this year.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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