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Recently, the Supreme Court upheld a two-year prison sentence for former Environment Minister Kim Eun-kyung.

Kim was found guilty of receiving the resignation from executives of public institutions under the Ministry of Environment who were appointed by the last government.

However, the suspicion that a similar incident occurred in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce arose three years ago.

As a result of our investigation, it was confirmed that the prosecution had already secured specific statements to the effect that there was pressure to resign at the beginning of the investigation.



This is an exclusive report by reporter Hyung-woo Hyung.



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The places where the prosecution conducted a search and seizure today are the Operation Support Division of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Office of the Innovation Administration Officer.



It has been three years since the filing of a complaint against the 'Ministry of Industry's Blacklist Suspicion Case' in January 2019.



Regarding the background of the forced investigation after stopping the investigation in April 2019 after the investigation of some witnesses, a prosecution official explained, "It is because the Ministry of Environment's blacklist case was confirmed as guilty by the Supreme Court in January."



This is because the case in which former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Baek Un-gyu was accused of abuse of power is similar to the case of the Ministry of Environment's blacklist, in which former Minister Kim Eun-kyung was sentenced to two years in prison.



The core allegation is that in September 2017, four months after the Moon Jae-in government was inaugurated, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy forced the presidents of four power generation companies to resign to resign, and in June 2018 pressured the presidents of four public institutions to resign.



As a result of the SBS coverage, it was confirmed that Mr. A, the president of the power generation company, who submitted his resignation at the time, stated in the investigation of the prosecutor's reference in April 2019 that he had been asked to resign.



In a phone call with SBS, Mr. A said, "In September 2017, the director of the Ministry of Industry at the time called me to the lounge on the first floor of a hotel in Gwanghwamun."



He also said that about a week later, he received a request to submit his resignation again through an employee in charge of government affairs at the power generation company.



In the end, the resignations of four power generation company presidents, including Mr. A, were accepted in September.



It is noteworthy whether the prosecution, which has launched a full-scale investigation against the current government for the first time since the election, will speed up the investigation.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Won-hee Won)