Prosecutors indicted independent lawmaker Lee Choon-suak without detention on charges of trading stocks under an aide's name. During the investigation, prosecutors additionally confirmed that Lee held stocks worth more than 30 million won without placing them in a blind trust as required, and that he received a combined 29 million won from acquaintances as condolence and congratulatory money while serving as National Assembly secretary general.
The Financial Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, led by chief prosecutor Kim Tae-gyeom, said on the 8th that it indicted Lee without detention for violating the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions, the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, the Public Service Ethics Act and the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.
Also indicted were the aide who lent Lee his brokerage account and mobile phone, a senior secretary who destroyed evidence, and four acquaintances who gave money exceeding the legal limit for condolence and congratulatory payments. A total of seven people were indicted, including Lee.
Lee is accused of receiving a mobile phone with a brokerage application installed and its password from his aide in March 2020, while serving in the 20th National Assembly, and again in June 2024, shortly after taking office in the 22nd National Assembly, and using them to trade stocks through the brokerage account held in the aide's name.
Investigators found that while trading through the account, Lee held stocks worth more than 30 million won but did not sell them or place them in a blind trust within the legal deadline. The Public Service Ethics Act requires senior public officials holding stocks above a certain value to undergo a review of whether the holdings relate to their duties, or to sell the shares or place them in a blind trust.
In 2021, while serving as National Assembly secretary general, he received a total of 29 million won from four acquaintances as condolence money for his mother's funeral and congratulatory money for his daughter's wedding, prosecutors found. Prosecutors indicted Lee together with the acquaintances who gave the money over the portion that exceeded the limit allowed under the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.
The investigation also uncovered evidence that documents were destroyed in Lee's office after the proxy trading allegations surfaced. According to prosecutors, Lee's aide instructed a senior secretary in August last year to shred documents in the office and remove a laptop from the premises, after allegations arose that Lee had traded shares in artificial intelligence-related companies using information obtained while serving as head of the second economic subcommittee of the State Affairs Planning Committee.
The allegation of using undisclosed material information was ultimately not established. Police had earlier declined to refer the capital markets law charge to prosecutors, saying an analysis of evidence secured through searches and seizures turned up no indication that Lee traded stocks using undisclosed information. Prosecutors asked police to reinvestigate and received the case records again for review, but concluded that the police decision was reasonable and returned the records.
The proxy trading allegations surfaced in August last year when news cameras captured Lee trading stocks using a brokerage application registered under his aide's name on the floor of the National Assembly. Complaints followed from the People Power Party and civic groups, and Lee voluntarily left the Democratic Party of Korea.
