Former Gyeonggi-do Governor Lee Hwa-young accused of 'two-fold money'... search and seizure

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KINTEX President Lee Hwa-young, who served as the Gyeonggi Peace Deputy Governor, received billions of dollars in back from the Ssangboll Group during his time as deputy governor, and the prosecution has launched an investigation.

Prosecutors raided the Gyeonggi Provincial Office and KINTEX.

Correspondent Kim Kwan-jin reported.

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Prosecutors searched and seized three departments within the Gyeonggi Provincial Office: the Peace Cooperation Bureau, the Communication Cooperation Bureau, and the Economic Deputy Office.

All of these are places where former Gyeonggi Peace Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young worked while serving Gyeonggi Province during the past Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung.

According to SBS coverage, the prosecution is investigating the circumstances in which former Lieutenant Governor Lee received billions of dollars from Ssang Bul-Bul's side.

Former Vice-Governor Lee Jae-myung served as an outside director for about a year in March 2017 as an outside director, and then moved to Gyeonggi Peace Vice-Governor after Lee Jae-myung took office as Gyeonggi Governor.

Prosecutors are said to be investigating the circumstances by which former Lieutenant Governor Lee received and used SsangBul's corporate card after resigning as an outside director.

The search and seizure targets also included the Asia-Pacific Peace Exchange Association, where former Lieutenant Governor Lee held an exchange project with North Korea while he was in Gyeonggi Province.

The Asia Pacific Association, which conducted exchange projects with Gyeonggi-do with Gyeonggi-do during the days of Gyeonggi Governor Jae-myung Lee, sponsored hundreds of millions of won in exchange projects with North Korea in Gyeonggi-do in 2018 and 2019, and suspicions have been raised that Ssangbangbang Group paid for it.

Prosecutors plan to summon former Lieutenant Governor Lee soon to investigate the reason for receiving money from SsangBul Group and whether there was any compensation.

As former Lieutenant Governor Lee is classified as a close aide to CEO Jae-myung Lee, and he has deeply immersed himself in North Korea projects in Gyeonggi-do, there are also observations that this investigation could lead to higher ranks of former Lieutenant Governor Lee.

SBS called several times to hear the position of former Lieutenant Governor Lee, but his cell phone was turned off and there was no response to a text message.

(Video editing: Kim Jong-mi)