Han Dong-hoon’s daughter’s “fabricated credentials”: zero search-warrant applications; spouse questioned in writing just once

[Financial News] Police did not apply for a single search warrant while investigating allegations that the daughter of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon had false credentials, it has been confirmed.
On the 12th, The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that this emerged from records provided by the National Police Agency to Yoon Geon-young, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Public Crimes Investigation Unit, which handled the investigation, was found not to have applied for a search warrant from the time it received a complaint about the allegations in May 2022 until it decided in December 2023 not to refer the case to prosecutors.
The only person connected to the allegations whom police questioned was the lawmaker’s spouse, one of the people named in the complaint. The spouse was questioned in writing once.
The two complainants were interviewed in person four and two times, respectively.
In June 2024, shortly after police decided not to reinvestigate the case, Woo Jong-soo, then head of the National Office of Investigation at the National Police Agency, said police had interviewed many witnesses.
In response to a question about case reports between the National Office of Investigation and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency during the investigation, the National Police Agency said, “We do not separately track the reporting history or who was responsible for the reports.”
After questioning the spouse in writing, police analyzed 11 items of material obtained from overseas academic conferences and other sources, reviewed the relevant law, and decided not to refer the case to prosecutors after 1 year and 8 months of investigation.
Police found no grounds for the obstruction-of-business charge because the academic association to which the lawmaker’s daughter’s paper had been submitted did not review it. For the alleged Copyright Act violation—making and selling e-books using plagiarized material—police ruled there was “no right to prosecute,” citing the absence of a complaint from the original author.
Police made no further request after prosecutors rejected, in December 2022, their request for international mutual legal assistance to obtain materials in the United States. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office reportedly said that the need for the request to establish the facts had not been sufficiently substantiated and that, given the gravity of the matter, it was difficult to expect the United States to provide assistance.
The National Police Agency said, “The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has made no further request for cooperation to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.”
Yoon criticized the investigation, saying, “Letting the case drag on without ever applying for a search warrant and then deciding not to refer it is a textbook case of a whitewash investigation. I question whether it can be called a fair investigation to summon and question only the complainants, while accommodating the person named in the complaint—whose alleged involvement should have been directly verified—by allowing them to respond from the comfort of their own home.”
He also criticized the fact that no further request for cooperation was made even after a decision not to forward the request for international mutual legal assistance, saying it raised suspicions that the investigation had been for show from the outset.
[email protected] Seong Min-seo Reporter