Kang Ho-dong, NACF chairman, returns to police... Probe into allegations of receiving “large condolence payments”

[Financial News] Kang Ho-dong, chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, who faces allegations of receiving money and valuables, has appeared before police again.
According to police and other sources, Kang appeared at about 9:20 a.m. that day at the headquarters of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Metropolitan Investigation Unit in Mapo-gu, Seoul. Asked by reporters about the allegations, Kang briefly replied, “I’m sorry,” before heading to the interrogation room.
Police are expected to look into how the large condolence payments Kang received from Nonghyup cooperative heads and others at the time of his mother-in-law’s funeral were delivered, and whether they were given in exchange for favors. Police have also been questioning the cooperative heads who made the payments.
Kang also faces allegations that around the January 2024 NACF chairman election, he received a total of 100 million won in cash in two installments from the head of a service company that did business with NACF affiliates, in exchange for providing business favors.
Police raided the NACF chairman’s office and other locations last October, and questioned Kang as a suspect this past April.
Alleged misuse of public funds within the NACF is also under investigation. The allegation is that some NACF departments spent about 240 million won in public funds from 2024 through last year to buy expensive gifts, including red ginseng and cosmetics, and delivered them to the chairman’s and vice chairman’s offices, among other places.
In connection with the case, a court issued an arrest warrant on the 30th of last month for Cha, an employee in the NACF chairman’s secretariat who is suspected of occupational embezzlement, citing concerns that evidence could be destroyed.
At a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee on the 16th, Kang denied the allegations, answering “No” when asked whether he had ordered, colluded in, or aided and abetted the purchase of expensive gifts.
[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter