LAND SCANDAL INVESTIGATION SPEEDS UP

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Prosecutors investigating the Daejang-dong land development scandal have found evidence that a former executive of the Seongnam Development Corporation received bribes. They subpoenaed again Hwacheon Daeyu's major shareholder Kim Man-bae and lawyer Nam Wook, and will likely request arrest warrants for them.

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Prosecutors have obtained evidence that former Seongnam Development Corporation executive Yoo Han-ki had received bribes. Yoo was interrogated by the prosecution on October 13. The prosecutors suspect that he received a large sum of bribery from a private land developer during the Daejang-dong development project. Some politicians have raised speculation that Yoo also received hundreds of millions of won in bribes from Hwacheondaeyu's major shareholder Kim Man-bae. Yoo was on the jury when selecting private consortiums for developing Daejang-dong in 2015. Yoo is also believed to have pushed for former Seongnam Development Corporation president Hwang Moo-sung, who was technically in a higher position of power than Yoo, to resign by saying it was the order of then-Seongnam City policy official Chung Jin-sang and then-Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung. Yoo says he recommended that Hwang step down because he had been indicted and was being tried in court for fraud at the time. He denied he knew Kim Man-bae personally or that he received any bribes from him. The prosecutors summoned Kim Man-bae and lawyer Nam Wook on Thursday again. Kim denied the accusation that he bribed Rep. Kwak Sang-do.

[Soundbite] Kim Man-bae(Hwacheondaeyu major shareholder) : "I have nothing to do with Rep. Kwak. Someone is trying to turn the attention to me."

The prosecutors will request arrest warrants for Kim Man-bae and Nam Wook after investigating them further. The investigation team has hired four new prosecutors to step up the probe.