SEOUL– Prosecutors have found more money transactions between a key culprit in a high-profile development and a reporter of an influential daily as they look into allegations that journalists of three newspapers received hundreds of millions of won from the culprit in opaque financial trades a few years ago, judicial sources said Wednesday.
The sources said prosecutors at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office detected Kim Man-bae, who is standing trial in connection with the apartment development project in the city of Seongnam, transferred 100 million won (US$80,128) to a bank account in the name of the senior reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo daily in June 2020. The money is an addition to the 90 million won Kim was earlier known to have sent.
Kim, the key culprit, is the largest shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, an asset management company at the center of the highly lucrative project.
He was indicted in 2021, along with his accomplices, on charges that include bribery, embezzlement and breach of trust. Two close confidants of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, were also indicted late last year for taking bribes from them.
The JoongAng Ilbo reporter is one of the three senior journalists at three different newspapers who allegedly received hundreds of millions won from Kim between 2019 and 2020.
As for the 90 million won, the JoongAng Ilbo reporter has said he got back the principal and interest on 80 million won he lent to Kim in 2018. The reporter, however, did not answer why the additional 100 million won was funneled into his band account.
Prosecutors were trying to determine if the money was a bribe.
After the additional transaction was disclosed Wednesday, the reporter offered to resign and the company accepted it.
The resignation came one day after a senior reporter of the Hankyoreh newspaper was sacked by the company for borrowing 900 million won from Kim. The newspaper made a public apology Friday for the money transaction and its chief editor stepped down three days later to take responsibility.
Source: Yonhap News Agency