Kim and Kang Cheol-won, former deputy mayors for political affairs of Seoul, are also on trial… Suspicion of violation of political funds law
On the 1st, the Min Joong-ki special prosecutor team investigating the so-called ‘Myeong Tae-gyun public opinion poll suspicion’ sent Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon to trial on charges of violating the Political Fund Act.
On this day, the special prosecutor’s team indicted Mayor Oh, former Seoul Deputy Mayor for Political Affairs Kang Cheol-won, and businessman Kim Han-jeong without detention on charges of violating the Political Fund Act.
Mayor Oh is accused of receiving opinion poll results from Myeong Tae-gyun ahead of the April 7, 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election and having Mr. Kim, known as a long-time supporter, pay the costs.
It was revealed that former Deputy Mayor Kang, who was the camp’s chief of staff at the time, contacted Myung at the direction of Mayor Oh and discussed the conduct of the public opinion poll, including exchanging questionnaires.
Accordingly, Mr. Myeong conducted a public and unpublished public opinion poll a total of 10 times from January 22 to February 28, 2021.
It was discovered that Mr. Kim paid a total of 33 million won to Mr. Myeong five times between February 1 and March 26 of the same year for the cost of public opinion polls.
Mr. Myeong claimed that he met with Mayor Oh seven times at the time and that Mayor Oh said during the election, “Please save her” and “We need an investigation to defeat Na Kyung-won.”
On the other hand, Mayor Oh has consistently denied any involvement, saying he has never requested an opinion poll from Myeong or received the results. Mr. Kim’s payment of expenses is also unrelated to him.