The Special Prosecutor's team, led by Lee Tae-han, is investigating allegations that the National Election Commission illegally diverted funds to pay monthly activity expenses for its chairman and non-standing commissioners.
According to legal sources on October 20, the Special Prosecutor plans to reapply for search warrants against employees of the National Election Commission related to suspicions of improper payments from the public election promotion fund, as well as charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (loss of national treasury) and forgery of official documents.
Previously, the Special Prosecutor filed for search warrants on October 12, but the Seoul Central District Court rejected the request on October 14, citing concerns that the defendants appeared to have differing legal interpretations and that executing the warrants could significantly disrupt the normal operations of the Election Commission. The Special Prosecutor is currently analyzing the court's reasons for dismissing the search warrant request.
The investigation focuses on the payments made to the Election Commission chairman, amounting to 2.9 million won per month, and 2.15 million won per month for non-standing commissioners, which the Special Prosecutor believes were illegally diverted after the presidential election in June of last year.
Initially, the Ministry of Economy and Finance had cut the entire budget for activity expenses, citing the absence of scheduled elections that year. However, due to the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, a snap election was held, leading to the allocation of contingency funds for activity expenses only in the second quarter.
Concerns have been raised within the Special Prosecutor's office that the judge who reviewed the search warrant, identified as Judge A of the Seoul Central District Court, may have influenced the decision due to his past connections with former Election Commission Chairman Noh Tae-ak. Judge A served as a member of a regional election commission in 2020 and worked as a research judge at the Supreme Court when Noh was a Supreme Court Justice in 2022.
In response to the rejection of the search warrant, the Special Prosecutor issued an unusual statement about three hours later, asserting that they sought the warrants to quickly secure evidence necessary to clarify the allegations of activity expenses paid to current and former high-ranking judges, including Supreme Court Justices, and criticized the court for dismissing the request for reasons that were difficult to understand.
Meanwhile, Special Prosecutor Lee Tae-han is scheduled to visit the headquarters of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency on October 21 at 3 p.m. to discuss practical issues with the new chief, Kim Ji-yong.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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