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The police applied for a preliminary arrest warrant for Bae, a former Grade 5 civil servant in Gyeonggi-do, who in fact served as Kim’s assistant in connection with the ‘suspicious use of corporate cards’ by Kim Hye-kyung, the spouse of Lee Jae-myung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea.
The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit announced today that it has applied for a preliminary arrest warrant for Bae, a former Gyeonggi-do official, on charges of breach of trust in his duties and the disclosure of false information under the Public Official Election Act.
Bae is accused of misusing business promotion expenses by paying for Kim Hye-kyung’s personal items and food with a Gyeonggi corporate card when Rep. Lee Jae-myung served as the Gyeonggi governor.
The police also applied the charge of publicizing false facts, saying that Bae denied that the allegation was not true at the time of the election when the suspicion of misappropriation of corporate cards was raised.
According to the audit results announced by Gyeonggi Province in April, it was investigated that Bae personally used millions of won worth of business promotion expenses over the past three years through food packaging and split payments.
In addition, a ‘swap’ method was used, in which payment was made with a personal card first, then canceled and paid once more with a Gyeonggi corporate card.
In relation to this, the police summoned Hye-kyung Kim yesterday (23rd) and investigated for 5 hours, and it is known that Kim denied that she did not know regarding the private use of corporate cards.
It is reported that the police are tentatively determining that Bae led the crime, and are considering sending Kim Hye-kyung without detention.
Rep. Jae-myung Lee said on social media last night, “In the police investigation, it was confirmed that the corporate card was written by Officer Bae, and his wife also revealed that Mr. Bae had paid for the food separately.”
He added, “According to the police, the food that Bae delivered to Kim was 1.8 million won in 16 cases,” he added.
