A special counsel team raided the national police agency as well as the offices and homes of current and former lawmakers as part of its investigation into corruption allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee, legal sources said.
The team also dispatched prosecutors to a police station in Chuncheon, about 75km northeast of Seoul, to carry out search and seizure operations to secure investigation records related to alleged overseas gambling by Unification Church leadership.
In June 2022, Chuncheon police launched an investigation into suspicions that church leader Han Hak-ja and senior executives gambled about 60 billion won (US$44 million) at casinos in Las Vegas between 2008 and 2011.
The church allegedly obtained information about the investigation, and suspicions have since emerged that the probe was quashed with the help of “pro-Yoon” figures.
The special counsel is expected to investigate whether the church was aware of the police probe and whether it engaged in lobbying efforts to obstruct it.
Earlier, the team searched the office and home of main opposition People Power Party (PPP) Rep Yoon Sang-hyun in Seoul, as well as the home of former PPP Rep Kim Young-sun in the city of Changwon, sources said.
In addition, investigators were searching the home of former prosecutor Kim Sang-min, they said.
The raids are part of special counsel Min Joong-ki’s investigation into allegations the former first lady, the wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, meddled in the PPP’s nomination of candidates for the 2022 parliamentary by-elections and 2024 general elections. – Yonhap/ANN
