The prosecution, which is investigating the Daejang-dong development lobby and preferential treatment case, is raiding the mayor's office and the secretary's office today (21st).
The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office's dedicated investigation team (team leader Kim Tae-hoon, 4th deputy chief prosecutor) sent 23 people, including prosecutors and investigators, to Seongnam City Hall this afternoon to secure related data from the mayor's office and the secretary's office.
Prosecutors are known to search the computers in the mayor's office and secretary's office to see if data related to the development of Daejang-dong remain, while also checking the past work diaries of employees.
However, it is not known how much data that Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung produced during his time as mayor will remain as more than three years have passed since Eun Soo-mi, the current mayor of Seongnam, and all the staff in the secretariat have changed.
There is also a possibility that the employees may have already deleted the relevant data because the prosecution conducted a search and seizure after 20 days had passed since the prosecution started the investigation.
When the prosecution conducted the first seizure and search of Seongnam City Hall on the 15th of this month, it was criticized for securing data only from departments related to the Daejang-dong project, excluding the mayor's office and the secretariat's office.
Regarding the belated search and seizure of the mayor's office in Seongnam, the prosecution official said, "It was not that I didn't want to go to the mayor's office, it was a process of taking steps."
Prosecutors searched the mayor's office and the secretary's office after investigating the 'Daejang-dong 4', including former Seongnam Urban Development Corporation's planning division head Dong-gyu Dong, Kim Man-bae, a major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, Nam Wook, lawyer, and Jeong Young-hak, an accountant.
Previously, Lee Jung-soo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, said in a state inspection by the National Assembly's Legislative and Judiciary Committee on the 14th of this month that Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, who was then the mayor of Seongnam, was also accused, so it would fall into the investigation category.
(Photo = Yonhap News)