Hong Joon-pyo: "Police pieced together the investigation ... If you're confident, summon me and question me"

[Financial News] Hong Joon-pyo, former mayor of Daegu, urged police to "summon me, investigate me, and wrap this up if you're confident," in response to his aides being investigated over allegations of improperly spending political funds for his 2021 presidential primary campaign.
On the 28th, former Mayor Hong said on Facebook, "Political finance officers use the slang expressions 'clear it out' and 'let's clear it out' when settling campaign expense accounts." He claimed, "These are slang expressions also often used when drawing up budgets or during National Assembly budget reviews, but the police mistook the expressions 'clear it out' and 'let's clear it out' exchanged on KakaoTalk for sham transactions and pieced together an investigation."
He went on to say, "They say rebates may occasionally be exchanged in long-standing business relationships," and, "They say outright sham transactions are not possible."
Hong said, "As I have repeatedly said, stop conducting investigations like this—calling in volunteers and staff members who worked diligently on the ground, seeking warrants and pressuring them with threats of detention. If you're confident, summon me, investigate me, and wrap this up. But when you call me in, make sure you have a lead."
He added, "This is an investigation pursuing an imaginary fantasy. That case has remained unsolved for a lengthy 2 years and 6 months," and stressed, "Stop this disgraceful behavior of talking about a nonexistent polling-fee payment case just to embarrass people."
The previous day (the 27th), Judge Son Bong-gi of the Daegu District Court, the presiding judge in charge of warrants, denied arrest warrants for Park, head of an election services company, and Kim, who handled accounting for Hong's campaign at the time. Both are suspected of violating the Political Funds Act.
The court said, explaining its reason for denying the warrants, "Based solely on the materials submitted by the investigative agency, it is difficult to conclude that there is a risk of flight or concern about the destruction of evidence."
Hong attended the warrant hearing that day as a defense lawyer and denied the allegations.
They are accused of improperly spending campaign political funds during the People Power Party's 2021 presidential primary and, after the primary, submitting to the National Election Commission an accounting report fabricated using false supporting documents.
The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit uncovered these circumstances while investigating allegations of proxy payment for polling costs associated with Myung Tae-gyun.
Police handed the case against four people, including former Mayor Hong, who had been accused in connection with the alleged proxy payment, to a special counsel in July last year. They took it back in March and continued investigating, including through searches and seizures.
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter