Four, including former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, referred to prosecutors over alleged preferential appointment of his daughter as a professor; suspected of obstruction of business

[Financial News] Police have referred four people, including former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min and Incheon National University President Lee In-jae, to prosecutors in connection with allegations of preferential hiring involving Yoo Dam, Yoo’s daughter and a professor in the university’s Department of International Trade.
According to Yonhap News on the 16th, the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit said it had registered four people, including former lawmaker Yoo and President Lee, as suspects without detaining them on suspicion of obstruction of business and referred them to prosecutors.
They are suspected of obstructing the university’s hiring process when Professor Yoo was hired by the Department of International Trade at Incheon National University’s Global College of Political Science and Economics in the second semester of last year.
Two of them, including President Lee and an Incheon National University professor, were also suspected of violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. They are suspected of having received solicitations related to Professor Yoo’s hiring, but no evidence that they received money or gifts was found.
The allegations were raised during last year’s parliamentary audit, and police began investigating after receiving a related complaint in November last year. After investigating the 23 people named in the complaint, police additionally registered three people, including former lawmaker Yoo, as suspects, bringing the total number of suspects to 26. Police, however, decided not to refer the 22 people other than the four sent to prosecutors, finding the allegations against them unsubstantiated.
Professor Yoo was questioned in writing only once, and police did not register her as a suspect because they found no grounds to suspect a crime.
A police official said, “We conducted 39 rounds of questioning involving 29 people, including those named in the complaint and witnesses, and secured evidence through four search-and-seizure operations as part of the investigation,” adding, “We referred to prosecutors the suspects against whom the allegations were substantiated.”
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter