The prosecution formed a ‘Special Investigation Team for the Public Opinion Manipulation Case Intervention in the Presidential Election’ and began a high-intensity investigation to investigate allegations of a false interview by Kim Man-bae, the majority shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management (Hwacheon Daeyu), conducted ahead of last year’s presidential election.
Mr. Kim, who was released from prison at the expiration of his detention period on the 7th, overturned the content of an interview on September 15, 2021 with Shin Shin-lim, former chairman of the National Press Union, saying that President Yoon Seok-yeol did not have the influence to quell the investigation during the Busan Savings Bank investigation in 2011. However, the prosecution believes that as the fallout from the false interview became more serious, Mr. Kim changed his words to minimize the incident. It is known that the prosecution also obtained a statement in which Mr. Kim did not deny the question, saying, “Why are you asking such a thing?” when asked by Daejang-dong’s group whether the interview with former Chairman Shin right after last year’s presidential election was a plot for the presidential election.
● Kim Man-bae “Personal conversation, not an interview”
Immediately after being released from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, at 03:03 on the 7th, Mr. Kim claimed to reporters, “I did not know that (former Chairman Shin) was recording private conversations.” When asked, ‘Did you give a false interview to change the direction of the presidential election?’, he said, “I am not a very capable person.” He also denied suspicions that he was involved in the process in which the interview was reported three days before the presidential election last year, saying, “I was in a detention center at the time.” Regarding President Yoon’s statement that he had cleared up the investigation of loan broker Jo Woo-hyung during the Busan Savings Bank incident in 2011, he said, “I don’t think (then President Yoon) was in a position of such influence as the head of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s Central Investigation Division.” .
Inside the prosecution, there was a reaction to Mr. Kim’s claim that it was a ‘private conversation’ rather than an interview and that he overturned the contents of the interview, saying, “He was trying to minimize the case.” The prosecution plans to entrust the investigation to a special investigation team led by Kang Baek-shin, head of the 3rd anti-corruption investigation department at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and staffed with about 10 prosecutors, to uncover the background of the false interview.
● Kim Man-bae does not deny the question “Is this your brother’s work?”
The prosecution is said to have also secured a statement from Mr. Kim to the effect that he did not deny that the ‘Shin Hak-rim interview’ immediately after the presidential election was a plot for the presidential election. Immediately after the presidential election, Mr. Kim was asked by Mr. A, a member of the Daejang-dong gang, “Is the interview with Shin Hak-rim your brother’s work?” and Mr. Kim did not deny it, saying, “Why are you asking such a thing, man?”
We also obtained a statement that Mr. Kim had been saying around March 2021 that he would “create a media foundation centered around former Chairman Shin and exert influence in the media world.” This is contradictory to Mr. Kim’s claim regarding his relationship with former Chairman Shin immediately after his release from prison, “He called me and came to visit me for the first time in 15 to 20 years.”
On the 7th, the prosecution, which investigated former Chairman Shin on charges of breach of trust and other charges, is considering requesting an arrest warrant. The previous day, during a search and seizure of the Hwacheon Dayu office in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, three handwritten books by former Chairman Shin, which Mr. Kim had purchased for 165 million won, were found abandoned.
● “Coffee was provided by an employee,” Newstapa’s news line was omitted.
Newstapa, which reported the interview with Mr. Kim three days before last year’s presidential election, released a 72-minute file메이저사이트 and transcript of the interview between former Chairman Shin and Mr. Kim.
In the recording, when former Chairman Shin asked, “Is the prosecutor who said Mr. Cho drank coffee during the Busan Savings Bank incident in 2011 the prosecutor surnamed Park or President Yoon?” Mr. Kim responded, “No, (Mr. Cho) alone.” It includes the statement, “Because the employees ride there.”
When former Chairman Shin asked, ‘Whose prosecutor did you meet?’, Mr. Kim replied, “I met Prosecutor Park ○○.” It is clear that the prosecutor that Mr. Cho met was not President Yoon. However, Newstapa did not report that it was employees who gave him coffee three days before the presidential election last year and that he did not meet President Yoon.
The ruling and opposition parties clashed day after day over suspicions of false interviews. Kim Ki-hyeon, leader of the People Power Party, criticized on this day, “It is an attempt to usurp the people’s sovereignty by collusion between the government, police, prosecution, and the press, and is a crime of national treason worthy of the death penalty.” On the other hand, Rep. Woo Sang-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea, who served as the head of the general campaign headquarters for Lee Jae-myung’s presidential campaign, said, “It is the transcript of Mr. Young-hak Chung submitted to the court that was used as the basis (for the attack). He refuted, saying, “I was not involved in Mr. Kim’s interview.”