The prosecution indicted Seoul National University of Education professor Park Myoung-gee Wednesday on charges of receiving money from Seoul’s education chief Kwak No-hyun in return for his withdrawal from last year’s election.
Park had vied for the position of superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education with Kwak, but gave up his bid about one month before the election, in which Kwak won as a unified liberal candidate.
Park’s lawyer earlier admitted to receiving 200 million won ($186,000) from Kwak early this year, but claimed that it had nothing to do with the election. Kwak has also denied the bribery allegations.
Kwak also appointed Park as a member of the advisory council at his office in June. That was not related to the election, either, according to them.
The prosecution arrested Kwak on Saturday and plans to indict him in a few weeks. Last week, it said half of the 200 million won given to Park was from Kwak’s wife and her sister, while the remaining 100 million won was from Kwak.
Investigators are now focusing on revealing how Kwak came up with the money. They suspect he may have embezzled or abused his authority as education chief in the course of raising the funds.
“We will finalize the probe into the cash-for-candidacy scandal soon after conducting more interrogations on Kwak and his former campaigners,” a prosecutor said.
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