A special counsel team in South Korea has indicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol for allegedly receiving numerous opinion poll results for free, which violates the Political Funds Act. The indictment also includes Myung Tae-kyun, who is accused of providing these opinion polls to Yoon. Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, are facing accusations of obtaining 58 opinion polls valued at 270 million won between June 2021 and March 2022.
The investigation focused on suspicions that the free opinion polls were exchanged for assistance in securing candidate nominations for the parliamentary by-elections in June 2022. Notably, these allegations were not part of the indictment and may be passed on to the police for further investigation if unresolved by the special counsel team’s term end. Yoon Suk Yeol recently appeared before the special counsel team for questioning regarding corruption allegations related to his wife.
Yoon is alleged to have been complicit in his wife’s actions, including receiving free opinion polls and accepting a valuable painting from a former prosecutor. Moreover, he faces accusations of violating the Public Official Election Act by allegedly making false statements about his wife during a debate in 2021. The special counsel team is also probing whether Yoon was involved in his wife’s acceptance of luxury gifts from individuals in exchange for favors.
