Former President Lee Myung-bak’s youngest son, Lee Si-hyung was registered as a director of the Cheonggye Foundation (Lee & Kim Foundation).

According to the corporate register of the Cheonggye Foundation on August 24, Lee Si-hyung took the position of director on September 7, 2021. That day was the day that attorney Lee Sang-joo, former President Lee’s son-in-law married to his eldest daughter, resigned from the foundation’s board of directors.

The Cheonggye Foundation was established with former President Lee’s private property in August 2009. The foundation is currently run by a board of eleven directors including the chairperson, Song Jung-ho, who has led the foundation since it was founded.

Lee Si-hyung left DAS in 2018 after serving as the company’s executive director. DAS was an auto parts maker used to create the former president’s slush funds. Former President Lee was sentenced to 17 years in prison for embezzling DAS funds and had the execution of his sentence suspended in June.

In August 2009, Lee Myung-bak donated his own property to establish the Cheonggye Foundation for scholarship programs. To fulfill his promise to give his property back to society, he donated a building, land, and personal savings worth 33.1 billion won and established the foundation in 2009, his second year as president.

However, this raised allegations that the former president was using the Cheonggye Foundation to expediently pass on his property to his son. In 2018, prosecutors concluded that the establishment of the Cheonggye Foundation was a “trick” for Lee to hand DAS down to his son, Lee Si-hyung, and not an act to give back to society.