POLICE ARRESTS LH OFFICIAL

[Anchor Lead]

Police have arrested an official from the Land and Housing Corporation and his or her acquaintance for alleged land speculation. Police believe the official used confidential information in massive land speculation. The probe is expected to speed investigation into other Land and Housing Corporation employees.

[Pkg]

Police have arrested a Land and Housing Corporation official and his acquaintance for alleged land speculation in Gwangmyeong City. The justice ministry issued arrest warrants on the counts of sufficient evidence and also the likelihood of flight and evidence destruction.

[Soundbite] (LH official) : "(Do you admit to the charges? Did you provide confidential information to your acquaintance?) ..."

The official in question and the acquaintance are facing accusations of land speculation under borrowed names in March 2017. At the time, the LH official was in charge of an urban development project in Gwangmyeong. Police have obtained evidence that the official leaked confidential information to meddle in Jeollabuk-do residents' land speculation between 2017 and 2018. The official's acquaintance had denied the allegation.

[Soundbite] (LH official's acquaintance (VOICE MODIFIED)) : "Individuals can purchase land this way. There's no need to draw links with LH. I did register my property first and their properties a few months later."

With the official's arrest, the investigation into the LH land speculation scandal is expected to gain pace. The investigation team has begun the confiscation of illegal profits reaped through land speculation.

[Soundbite] Yoo Jae-sung(Governmental taskforce for investigating land speculation) : "We have requested that the court freeze 24 billion won worth of real estate subject to confiscation, and will soon file the same request for three other properties."

The investigators have transferred to police 47 people and are investigating 636 others in relation to the LH scandal. They include 10 local government heads, 44 lawmakers, and 38 LH employees.