A former investigation team leader at Seoul's Gangnam Police Station has been sent to trial in custody on charges of quashing a fraud case linked to broadcaster Yang Jung-won, a former Pilates instructor. Prosecutors said the officer accepted cash and entertainment in exchange for reclassifying a suspect as a "witness" in police records to remove the person from the investigation, and for pressuring junior officers to close cases without charges.
The Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, led by chief prosecutor Shin Dong-hwan, said on the 20th that it had indicted and detained Song, a police captain who had served as an investigation team leader at Gangnam Police Station, on charges including bribery, abuse of authority and leaking official secrets.
Lee, a police superintendent with the Korean National Police Agency who connected case parties to Song and received hospitality alongside him, was indicted without detention on charges including accepting a bribe for mediation. A, a multi-level marketing operator who gave Song gift certificates worth 2 million won, was indicted without detention on charges of offering a bribe.
Song is accused of accepting requests from four people to fix five cases and provide investigative information related to matters that he and fellow officers were handling while he served as an investigation team leader at Gangnam Police Station. In the process, he received cash and entertainment at bars, taking money and hospitality worth about 8 million won in total over six occasions, according to the investigation.
In the Yang fraud case, Song received a call from Lee, who was acquainted with Yang's husband, Lee, and then arbitrarily changed Yang — who had been reported for fraud and registered as a "suspect" in police records — to a "witness," removing her from the investigation. Song and superintendent Lee later told the husband that they had "personally escorted her during questioning, switched her from a suspect to a witness and paid attention to the matter," before receiving items including a luxury scarf and hospitality at bars.
Later, when another fraud case involving Yang became an issue, Song had a fellow officer induce the victim to withdraw the complaint and pressured junior officers to "finish it quickly as no case, since I've already reviewed this one." The case was ultimately dropped without referral after the investigation was suspended.
Song also intervened in a stock manipulation case. When B, a "market manipulation player" who had carried out stock manipulation with the husband, came under investigation for fraud at Gangnam Police Station, Song was asked to manage the case, then checked and passed on investigative information to look into it. He also received 2 million won worth of department store gift certificates on two occasions in return for providing investigative information and favors, after being introduced through a broker to A, the multi-level marketing operator who had more than 10 cases filed at Gangnam Police Station. All of those cases were closed without referral within a few months of the complaints being filed.
When the prosecution's investigation began, Song even prepared false statements to conceal the fact that he had taken money and gifts. To disguise the source of the gift certificates he had received, he put related individuals forward as "stand-in witnesses" to give false testimony.
Prosecutors launched their investigation after detecting signs of collusion between police officers and case parties while looking into a stock manipulation case involving a KOSDAQ-listed company. In March, they searched Gangnam Police Station and Song's residence, among other locations, and after additional investigation obtained an arrest warrant for Song on the 5th.
Chief prosecutor Shin Dong-hwan stressed that internal guidelines had existed since 2020 to prevent police officers engaged in investigative work from colluding with criminals, but that they had effectively failed to function, with many cases ending in nothing more than verbal warnings. "In the process of reforming the criminal justice system going forward, the system should be overhauled to prevent such cases," he said.
