Kim Man-bae, the majority shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu at the center of corruption allegations tied to the Daejang-dong development project in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi, and former special prosecutor Park Young-soo first formed a connection with the Daejang-dong development project when the Central Investigation Division at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office investigated the Busan Savings Bank.

A, a Busan Savings Bank insider who built the 110 billion won project finance for the Daejang-dong project, prepared for the prosecutors’ investigation and hired Park Young-soo as his attorney after being introduced by Kim Man-bae, a reporter who covered the Prosecution Service at the time. A, who received over a billion won in exchange for the project finance loans for the Daejang-dong project, managed to avoid charges, but he was prosecuted following a prosecutors’ investigation in 2015 and was sentenced to time in prison. The lead prosecutor in the Busan Savings Bank investigation was former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, who was the head of the Central Investigation Division Department 2.

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on October 6, in 2009, Jeong Young-hak, an accountant who went to the same university a few years ahead of A, introduced him to Yi (Lee), head of the Daejang Project Financing Vehicle (PFV), which promoted the Daejang-dong project, and A offered Yi a loan of 115.5 billion won for the project from the Busan Savings Bank group. According to the loan contract at the time, the Busan Mutual Savings Bank, the Busan Mutual Savings Bank 2, and the Daejeon Mutual Savings Bank--affiliates of the Busan Savings Bank group--joined the project as creditors. The loan they provided was used to cover the initial costs of the project, such as to purchase land in Daejang-dong.

In exchange for arranging the loan, A received over 1 billion won from Daejang PFV. The fact that A was an in-law of Park Yeon-ho, the chairman of the Busan Savings Bank group, influenced the massive loan from the group. A could be charged with receiving bribes in exchange for favors according to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and the management including chairman Park Yeon-ho, who offered the loan to a relative of a major shareholder, could be charged with violating the Mutual Savings Bank Act.

The Central Investigation Division at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office called A in for questioning when they conducted a massive investigation of the Busan Savings Bank management in 2011. Reportedly, A contacted Kim Man-bae, a reporter who covered the Prosecution Service--the two had met as a reporter and a news source--and asked his advice on the prosecutor’s request. Kim arranged a meeting between A and Park Young-soo, who had ties to the investigation team at the Central Investigation Division. An active journalist introduced the case to a lawyer he knew who happened to be a former prosecutor. Park confirmed the details of A’s case and handed the case to a lawyer in the same law firm after drastically cutting the legal fee. He claims the fee was adjusted because A was summoned as a witness and not as a suspect.

The prosecutors questioned A as a witness for his alleged involvement in the delivery of bribes from Kim Yang, the vice chairman of the Busan Savings Bank group to Kim Du-woo, senior Cheongwadae secretary for public relations. Although the prosecutors conducted an extensive investigation on bad loans at the Busan Savings Bank, the Daejang-dong project financing was not included in the investigation.

Later A, Kim Man-bae and Park Young-soo maintained their relationship, which was also why Kim came to participate in the Daejang-dong project in 2014. A was arrested and prosecuted for swindling over 1 billion won in exchange for the loans, when a special investigation team at the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office investigated corruption in the Daejang-dong development project in 2015. At the time of the investigation, Park was A’s legal representative in the case. When asked about his role and how he came to take on A’s case during the investigation by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Park said, “I don’t remember,” and added, “Until now, I have always handled my affairs as a lawyer properly and I have not once played games.” A representative of Yoon Seok-youl said, “A case was never handled unfairly because of personal relations with a particular lawyer.”