A section chief at the Board of Audit and Inspection's Special Investigation Bureau, identified only as A, threatened officials under review during a 2022 audit of national statistics, telling them their careers in public service would be over if they did not cooperate and that "the target is the land minister," the board found.
The Board of Audit and Inspection said on the 27th that it had forwarded reference materials for a criminal investigation on 10 people, including former board chairman Choe Jae-hae and audit commissioner Yoo Byung-ho, to the National Office of Investigation. The task force, formed in April to follow up on a parliamentary inquiry, was set up to examine allegations raised in the National Assembly over the statistics audit and a separate audit into the killing of a fisheries official in the West Sea.
The investigation found that both the statistics audit and the West Sea audit, conducted in 2022 and 2023, were handled by a group within the Special Investigation Bureau known internally as the "Tiger faction." Members of the group threatened officials by saying that "if you don't testify properly about those above you, the section chief will take the entire fall," and created an atmosphere of fear by referring to a past case in which an official under audit had died by suicide, according to the findings.
Investigators also questioned an official with a six-month-old child until early morning on several occasions and, on one occasion after midnight, ordered fried chicken without regard to the official's wishes, ate together and then resumed questioning — prolonging sessions to apply psychological pressure, the board confirmed.
The task force concluded that a substantial portion of the key evidence in the statistics audit had been tainted, because false statements obtained through coercive questioning were written into the audit report. "The statistics audit alleged that senior officials at the presidential office and the land ministry under the Moon Jae-in administration pressured working-level officials at the ministry and the Korea Real Estate Board to manipulate real estate statistics," a task force official said. "But the statements at the core of that finding — those concerning instructions from the presidential office and the ministry — were mostly tainted by coercion."
Unlawful conduct was also found across the investigative process, including coercing consent to mobile phone forensics, inducing officials to waive their right to observe the process, collecting private information and conducting additional forensic work outside the rules.
Based on the findings, the board filed criminal complaints against nine working-level staff on the audit team that handled the statistics audit, on charges including abuse of authority, obstruction of official duties and preparing false official documents. It called for heavy disciplinary action, including dismissal and removal from office, against 10 staff involved in the statistics audit. In connection with the West Sea audit, it issued written warnings to 12 people, including two bureau directors.
