Special Prosecutor's Task Force Re-Summons Lee Chang-soo Over Alleged Kim Keon-hee Probe Suppression... Lee Won-seok and Yoon Hee-keun to Be Questioned on the 23rd

[Financial News] The Special Prosecutor's Task Force, led by Kwon Chang-young, is re-summoning and questioning former Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief Lee Chang-soo in connection with allegations that the probe into Kim Keon-hee was suppressed. The task force also plans to summon former Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok and former Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency Yoon Hee-keun for questioning on the 23rd.
The task force said in a media notice on the 19th that "the former district chief is currently present and being questioned."
Lee had previously been questioned once by the special prosecutor on the 15th as a suspect on charges including the preparation of false official documents.
The task force also said, "We notified the former prosecutor general to appear on the 23rd for questioning as a reference witness, but have not yet received a response."
It added, "In relation to the alleged suppression of the Unification Church investigation, former police chief Yoon is scheduled to appear on the morning of the 23rd for questioning as a suspect."
The special prosecutor plans to determine whether outside influence from the Office of the President of the Republic of Korea or elsewhere affected the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's decision in 2024 to clear Kim Keon-hee of the Dior bag receipt allegation and the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation allegation.
It is also expected to examine what the investigation team reported to the former prosecutor general during the clearance process, and whether there were any problems in the direction of the investigation or the decision-making process.
The so-called "Kim Keon-hee probe suppression" allegation claims that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office issued a non-indictment decision in 2024 without conducting a sufficient investigation into various allegations surrounding Kim.
At the time, Lee ordered an active investigation, including instructing the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to form a dedicated investigation team after the Dior bag allegation surfaced. He later clashed with the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. The Ministry of Justice then carried out a sweeping reshuffle of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office leadership and senior SPO staff.
The newly formed Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office investigation team later conducted a face-to-face interview with Kim in July of that year at an annex facility of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), rather than at the prosecutors' office. It later emerged that Lee had not received advance briefing on the interview, sparking controversy over the so-called "prosecutor general bypass."
The investigation team later cleared both the Dior bag allegation and the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation allegation in October of that year.
Lee, who took office as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office during the prosecutor general bypass controversy, also took part as an approval authority in the final non-indictment decision. The special prosecutor is examining whether Lee improperly intervened in the interview with Kim and the non-indictment process.
It is also investigating him on charges of preparing false official documents over how part of the investigation report in the Deutsche Motors case was revised after the fact.
Lee, however, is said to maintain that the decision to clear Kim was based on the investigation team's legal review, and that the report revisions merely reflected points raised during a media briefing, with no illegal conduct involved.
Meanwhile, Yoon is accused of being involved in suppressing the case during the investigation into allegations that Hak Ja Han and other Unification Church figures engaged in gambling trips to Las Vegas.
The special prosecutor plans to focus on whether the police investigation was properly handled after intelligence was received that Unification Church figures had gambled at U.S. casinos for hundreds of billions of won between 2008 and 2011.
 



scottchoi15@fnnews.com Choi Eun-sol Reporter