Yong Hye-in, nominee for minister of gender equality and family, has been reported to police on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Act after paying more than half of her political funds to her party as special membership dues while her spouse drew a salary from the same party.
Lee Jong-bae, a former Seoul city councilor from the People Power Party, said on the 3rd that he had filed a complaint against Yong with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for alleged violations of the Political Funds Act.
Lee argued that an investigation is warranted, saying political funds may have been used for private purposes in the process by which Yong paid the money to the party as special membership dues and her spouse then received a salary as a paid party official.
Citing Yong's political fund revenue and expenditure records submitted to the National Election Commission for 2020 through 2024, Lee said Yong spent a total of 503.959785 million won in political funds, of which 293.6 million won, or 58.3%, was paid to the party as special membership dues.
He also cited materials from the office of People Power Party lawmaker Cho Ji-yeon, saying Yong appointed her spouse, surnamed Park, as the party's secretary general at the first meeting held three days after the Basic Income Party was founded in January 2020. A notice of the meeting's results posted on the party's website at the time listed Yong as an attendee and Park as an observer, he said.
Lee also pointed to Basic Income Party accounting records for 2020 through 2026 that Cho's office obtained from the National Election Commission. According to Lee, those records show Park has received an average monthly salary of close to 3 million won from the Basic Income Party since 2020.
Lee raised the possibility of a Political Funds Act violation based on that flow of money. "If Yong appointed her spouse as a paid party official, paid 293.6 million won of her own political funds to the party as special membership dues, and the party then continuously paid a salary to her spouse, it can be seen as indirectly channeling political funds to her spouse through the party," he said.
Article 2, Paragraph 3 of the Political Funds Act requires that political funds be spent only on expenses necessary for political activity and prohibits their use for private expenses or improper purposes. A violation involving spending political funds on purposes other than expenses necessary for political activity is punishable by up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 4 million won.
"If the form of special membership dues was used for the purpose of providing economic benefits to a spouse, it could be assessed as a private expense in the nature of 'support or subsidy for the household,' or as spending political funds for an improper purpose contrary to social norms," Lee said. "Investigative authorities must uncover the substantive truth of this case through a thorough investigation."
Yong was also reported a day earlier by the Citizens' Livelihood Countermeasure Committee, a conservative civic group, on suspicion of abuse of power and violating the Public Official Election Act. The group argued that Yong's use of a VIP lounge at Gimpo International Airport with her family ahead of a trip to Jeju Island in 2023 ran counter to Korea Airports Corporation operating rules, which restrict lounge use to official duties.
