Gyeonggi Gov. Lee cleared of corruption charges over football club

Police on Tuesday cleared Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung of charges of pressuring businesses to provide money to a pro-football club formerly headed by him.

The leading candidate competing in the presidential primary of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) was probed by the Bundang Police Station in Seongnam, south of Seoul, after his electoral rival filed a complaint against him before the local elections in June 2018.

The now-defunct Bareunmirae Party claimed that Lee, then mayor of the Seongnam city and owner of its football club Seongnam FC, pressured large companies based in the city to pay a total of 16 billion won (US$13.8 million) in advertisement fees to the K-League 1 club in exchange for business favors.

Lee, who served as Seongnam mayor from 2010 to 2018, denied the allegations.

The Bundang police said they decided not to press the charge against him, citing insufficient evidence.

The police began the probe in earnest in October 2020 after dealing with other charges of election law violations also raised by the party against Lee. Lee was later acquitted by the court in those cases.

In July, the police conducted a written interrogation of the governor on the Seongnam FC case.

He defied police summons the previous month, criticizing the probe as politically motivated ahead of next year’s presidential election.