Controversy is rising when prosecutors indicted Dong-gyu Yoo, a former head of the planning division of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, who is a key figure in the Daejang-dong development lobbying and favoritism allegations, and excluded the charge of breach of trust.
Some suspicions have been raised that the prosecution is 'cutting off the tail' to prevent the investigation from expanding to Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, centering on the opposition.
According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office's dedicated investigation team (team leader Kim Tae-hoon, 4th deputy chief prosecutor) indicted former general manager Yoo yesterday and applied only bribes and bribes under the Specific Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act.
The charge of breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, which was a key charge to determine the nature of the development of Daejang-dong and was listed as a major charge in the arrest warrant for former general manager Yoo, was excluded from the indictment.
Prosecutors explained that they plan to deal with this later after clarifying the accomplices relationship or sharing of specific acts.
The intention is that additional prosecutions against former general Yoo may be made through a supplementary investigation.
It is pointed out that such an explanation by the prosecution is equivalent to a confession that when arresting Yoo, the investigation was not carried out properly and putting the charges in the warrant.
The charge of breach of trust by former general manager Yoo was also included in the arrest warrant for Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, which was dismissed by the court.
Even at the time, it was pointed out that the lack of proof of the charges was the cause of the dismissal of the warrant, and the prosecution also partially admitted this during the indictment process.
Criticism is raised in the legal circles for issuing a 'indictment that is inferior to a warrant' while indicting former general manager Yoo.
A lawyer from the prosecution said, "The charges that entered the arrest warrant are rarely dropped during the prosecution process."
As no clear conclusion has been reached from the investigation of former general manager Yoo, which falls under the 'threshold' of the suspicion of preferential treatment, the task of identifying the 'superior' involved in the development project is also expected to be difficult.
The allegation of breach of trust could be a basis for recovering the enormous profits taken by the so-called 'Daejang-dong Four', but the prosecution excluded this part.
Some even raise suspicions that the prosecution deliberately excluded the charge of breach of trust in order to 'cut off the tail'.
If the overall development of Daejang-dong is defined as breach of trust, the responsibility of Governor Lee Jae-myung, who has the final approval authority, must also be considered, and the charge of breach of trust was removed because of the burden of including the name of this branch in the indictment of former general manager Yoo in some way.
In a post on his SNS today, lawyer Kim Jong-min, a former branch chief, said, "The prosecution of Yoo Dong-gyu and the exclusion of breach of trust is at the level of abuse of the prosecution right." criticized.
Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol also said, "It is only an excuse to leave the charge of breach of trust for the investigation of an accomplice.""It seems to mean that we will not investigate the people suspected of accomplices, including the governor," he said.