Han Dong-hoon Claims Justice Minister Nominee Kim Seung-won Knew of Hundreds of Millions in Lobbying Payoffs

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon claimed today (Sept. 9) regarding allegations that Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won solicited approval for a new drug clinical trial, "Nominee Kim knew that if he lobbied the Minister of Food and Drug Safety, broker Yang would receive hundreds of millions of won in compensation from Kang through convertible bonds (CB) and other investment methods."

In a Facebook post today, Han stated, "In fact, broker Yang received hundreds of millions of won. Nominee Kim himself should be investigated and punished for third-party bribery and other bribery charges. A special counsel investigation is urgently needed."

As evidence, he additionally released the call records between Yang and Kang from September 3, 2021.

In the call, Kang tells Yang, "I am bound by deposit protection for a year anyway. Even so, if they raise 30 billion won from that side—whether through old shares or new shares, we can discuss various methods later—if we do it, creating old shares is something we can do together." Kang adds, "For example, if you attract 30 billion in investments and you introduced it, under the Attorney-at-Law Act, we can give you 5%."

When Yang asks, "Are you making money too?", Kang explains, "Then it's 1.5 billion won. Then it becomes a capital increase for your company personally. I purposely didn't mention your commission because it's a personal matter. But normally, if it exceeds 10 billion won, it's 3%, and if it's around 5 billion won, it's 5% for commission."

Regarding this, lawmaker Han stated, "Nominee Kim lobbied with the knowledge that if he lobbied the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, broker Yang would receive 800 million to 1 billion won in the form of CB investments," while also presenting the transcript of a phone conversation between broker Yang and former Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Choi Jae-sung in October 2021.

The transcript contains statements where Yang tells former Senior Secretary Choi, "I told Nominee Kim, 'If investment is attracted, Professor Kang said he would invest about 800 million to 1 billion won by issuing CBs to our company as well. So please help us.'"

In response to Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok's criticism suspecting "cooperation with the prosecutors" regarding his successive releases of transcripts, lawmaker Han fired back, saying, "We will take criminal action against leader Kim Min-seok for spreading false information. I have never received anything resembling data from the prosecutors, so I will hold leader Kim strictly accountable for his groundless lies."

He added, "The 'Democratic Party oppas, including Kim Min-seok oppa from the New Millennium NHK room salon,' trying to deflect will not make the facts regarding the Democratic Party oppa's poison lobbying disappear."
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.