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Prosecutors investigating the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship allegation' are expanding their investigation by raiding Naver, which the police previously judged not guilty of.

Jubilee Bank, where Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung served as joint bank president, was also included in the search and seizure, and the Democratic Party strongly opposed it.



Correspondent Son Ki-joon.



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The prosecution's search and seizure targets are about 10 places including Naver and Jubilee Bank.



In 2015, Jae-myung Lee, the mayor of Seongnam at the time, established Jubilee Bank with Hope Salim, a public interest corporation run by his aide, Je Yun-kyung, a former Democratic Party member.



The bank launched the 'Rolling Jubilee' campaign, which bought long-term non-performing loans and canceled Seongnam citizens' debts, and Lee was the co-head of the bank.



[Lee Jae-myung / Mayor of Seongnam (2015): Right now, Jubilee Bank is starting a debt relief project with private fundraising, but in the long run, it is a national policy to relieve the debt of the common people with the budget…

.]



Naver sponsored 4 billion won for this campaign, and Hope Salim paid the remaining 3.9 billion won to Seongnam FC in the name of advertising expenses, excluding 100 million won from the 4 billion won.



Prosecutors are investigating whether Naver 'bypassed support' to Seongnam FC at the time and received special favors such as building permits for the second office building in return.



Previously, as a result of the supplementary investigation, the police sent only Doosan E&C with an opinion of indictment.



The Democratic Party denounced it as 'a phase-shifting investigation' and 'kill Lee Jae-myung'.



[Kim Eui-gyeom / Spokesperson of the Democratic Party: The people are no longer deceived by the low-level strategy of turning the public's attention, which was focused on abusive diplomacy and humiliating diplomacy, to the opposition investigation by Seok-Yeol Yoon and Dong-Hoon Han.



] As the prosecution's investigation has been expanded to the entire original donation, the opposition is expected to grow stronger.



(Video coverage: Kim Heung-gi·Kim Yong-woo, Video editing: Yu Mira, CG: Park Cheon-woong)