Former Ssangbangwool group chairman Kim Seong-tae, a central figure in the Ssangbangwool group’s corruption allegations, has been arrested in Thailand after 8 months on the run.
The Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office announced on 10 at 19:50 Korean time that former President Kim and current Ssangbangul Group Chairman Yang Seon-gil were arrested by local police at a golf course in Thailand.
Former President Kim is alleged to have mobilized dozens of people, including employees of the Ssangbangbang group, to smuggle an estimated $6.4 million into China from 2018 to 2019 and deliver it to North Korea.
There are also suspicions that Lee Jae-myeong, the representative of the Democratic Party of Korea, is paying the legal fees and manipulating the double drop’s share price.
On May 24 last year, he obtained Ssangbangbang’s corruption-related investigation secrets from an investigator from the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office, then left for Singapore a week later and fled to Thailand.
The prosecution seized on the circumstances under which he had fled to and from Thailand and Laos and put pressure on him to secure new recruits, such as freezing the stock he held with borrowed names and canceling his passport .
Prosecutors intend to extradite former President Kim as soon as the procedure is completed in Thailand.
[ 경기신문 = 박진석 기자 ]