Ex-President Convicted for Lying in Two Interviews Could Cost Opposition Party $27.3 Million in Campaign Contributions
The hits just keep coming for the PPP:
A Seoul court convicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol of election law violations Monday, putting the main opposition party at risk of returning nearly 40 billion won (US$27.3 million) that was reimbursed in campaign expenses for the 2022 presidential election.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, after finding him guilty of making false statements as the People Power Party (PPP)’s presidential candidate ahead of the election in March 2022.
If the verdict is finalized through appeals, the PPP will be forced to return the 39.7 billion won it was reimbursed in campaign expenses by the election watchdog after Yoon’s victory in the 2022 election.
Here is what election law violations were he was convicted of:
Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team earlier indicted Yoon on suspicion of falsely claiming during a December 2021 press event that he had never introduced a lawyer to a former tax official.
Yoon was also charged for lying in a January 2022 interview when he said a party official had introduced him to shaman Jeon Seong-bae and denied meeting Jeon together with his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
The court found Yoon guilty on both charges, accepting the special counsel’s argument that Yoon had in fact introduced the lawyer to the former tax official and had met Jeon through his wife’s introduction.
“The nature of the offense is very grave as false information was publicized on a matter that drew great voter interest,” the court said.
Some I doubt voters really cared about either interview, but if the standard is that politicians should be jailed for lying in interviews it seems there should be a lot more special counsels being initiated to investigate. By the way could you imagine how many politicians would be prosecuted if the U.S. had a similar law?
