Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
UPP's Lee faces summons over fraud allegations
By Yi Whan-woo
The prosecution is to summon Rep. Lee Seok-ki of the minor Unified Progressive Party (UPP) on allegations of fraud.
A public relations company founded by Lee is suspected of inflating costs of services provided to several politicians, according to prosecutors Friday.
The allegation came after the investigators raided CN Communications to obtain evidence on inflated voting expenditure by Chang Man-chae, the top educator of South Jeolla Province. Chang won an election in June 2010 with Lee’s help.
Investigators suspect Lee used part of payments from Chang to finance alleged voting fraud during the National Assembly elections last April.
Police already raided the UPP office and obtained a list of the party’s 220,000 members.
“We have found that a number of UPP members voted multiple times in the election of candidates for proportional representation Assembly seats,” an investigator said.
However, Lee criticized the prosecution for conducting a politically-motivated investigation of him and his leftist party.
“This is obviously a setup and I’ll fight to prove my innocence,” he said.