Less than two months before the countdown to South Korea's presidential election, the scandal involving Lee Jae-myung, the popular "successor" of the current President Moon Jae-in and presidential candidate of the ruling party's Democratic Party, continued to ferment, and a person involved was found dead in a hotel on the 12th.
So far, three people involved in the scandal involving Lee Jae-ming have died.
Police said on the 12th that they found a lawyer named Li Bingzhe dead in a hotel in western Seoul that morning.
Three days ago, his relatives reported his disappearance to the police.
The cause of Li Bingzhe's death is not yet known, and his body has been sent to a hospital near the accident site for autopsy.
Local media reported that no signs of fighting were found at the scene, and no evidence of other crimes was found.
South Korean media called Lee Byung-chul a "whistleblower".
He was the first to provide documents to a non-governmental organization, alleging that Lee Jae-myung's defense lawyer received huge compensation in a lawsuit, including 300 million won (about 1.6 million yuan) in cash and 2 billion won (10.69 million yuan) worth of money. stock.
In that lawsuit, Lee Jae-myung was charged with violating the Public Office Election Law and spreading false information.
In July 2020, South Korea's Grand Court, the Supreme Court, acquitted Lee Jae-myung.
The non-governmental organization suspects that Li Zaiming's defense lawyer's remuneration is not paid by Li Zaiming himself, but paid by others.
Data show that during this period, Lee Jae-myung’s assets decreased by about 300 million won, far less than what his defense lawyers were paid.
In October last year, the NGO filed a lawsuit against Lee Jae-myung.
In addition, Li Zaiming was also involved in a corruption case.
Prosecutors and police suspect that in a 2015 real estate development project in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, south of Seoul, a little-known investment company may have won the project by bribing government officials, members of Congress and other influential figures to gain access to the project. A huge profit equivalent to a thousand times the investment.
Lee Jae-myung was the mayor of Seongnam at the time.
The case is still under investigation.
After Lee Jae-ming announced his candidacy for the presidency, two key figures involved in the case died on December 10 and 21 last year.
With the presidential election approaching, the opposition camp seized on this topic and attacked Lee Jae-ming.
In this regard, the Common Democratic Party issued a statement saying that Li Zaiming had nothing to do with the death lawyer Li Bingzhe, and the statement against Li Zaiming was purely fabricated.
The Common Democratic Party also called for not politicizing the incident and smearing the presidential candidate without evidence.
South Korea's presidential election is scheduled for March 9.
In the candidates for the next president, Lee Jae-myung and the National Power Party presidential candidate and former attorney general Yin Xiyue are regarded as the "two strong" candidates.
Recently, the popularity of An Zhexiu, the presidential candidate of the Kuomintang Party, ranked third in the approval rate, has risen, and the election may be transferred to the "three-strong competition" mode.