First trial in Kim Keon Hee family's 'Yangpyeong Gongheung District development favoritism case' postponed to next month

[Financial News] The trial of First Lady Kim Keon Hee's family over alleged favoritism in the Yangpyeong Gongheung District development project has been postponed to next month.
According to the legal community on the 3rd, Criminal Division 35 of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Baek Dae-hyun, postponed the first preparatory hearing that had been scheduled for that day. The hearing concerns PPP lawmaker Kim Sun-kyo, the First Lady's mother Choi Eun-soon, her older brother Kim Jin-woo, and others, who are charged with breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.
The court had initially planned to hold the first preparatory hearing that day. However, copying of the evidence records for the defendants was delayed because the Kim Keon Hee special prosecutor team, led by Special Prosecutor Min Jung-ki, recently relocated its office to Gwacheon. When the defense requested a postponement on these grounds, the court accepted the request.
The defendants are accused of causing tens of billions of won in losses to Yangpyeong County by reducing development charges for a company owned by the First Lady's family during the Yangpyeong Gongheung District development project.
The "Yangpyeong Gongheung District favoritism allegations" center on claims that ESI&D, a company owned by Kim Keon Hee's family, received preferential treatment during an urban development project carried out between 2011 and 2016 in the Gongheung-ri area of Yangpyeong County. Yangpyeong County is alleged to have failed to impose development charges and to have retroactively extended the project deadline. Choi Eun-soon reportedly served as CEO of ESI&D until 2014, after which Kim Jin-woo took over as the new CEO and exercised de facto management control. The First Lady is also said to have served as an inside director at the company.
The special prosecutor team concluded that then–Yangpyeong County governor and current lawmaker Kim Sun-kyo instructed public officials to reduce development charges for ESI&D at the request of Choi Eun-soon and Kim Jin-woo. The team estimated Yangpyeong County's losses at a little over 2.2 billion won, explaining that the First Lady's family effectively received that amount in benefits through the waived development charges.
theknight@fnnews.com Jung Kyung-soo Reporter