Published : Oct. 29, 2019 - 19:50
The prosecution again sought an arrest warrant for a younger brother of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Tuesday over a hiring scandal and an alleged fake lawsuit in connection with a private school foundation run by his family.
State prosecutors asked a Seoul court to issue a warrant to formally detain the 52-year-old man over charges, including breach of duty, bribery, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting destruction of evidence.
On a wheelchair, a younger brother of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, moves to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office for probes on Tuesday. (Yonhap)
The brother, who worked at the Woongdong school foundation, is alleged to have leaked test questions and answers to two people who applied to teaching posts at a middle school run by the foundation and received 210 million won ($180,102)
He is also suspected of incurring financial losses to the school foundation by filing a fraudulent lawsuit against it over construction costs.
A new charge was filed against the brother over allegations that he sought a fake divorce with his wife to avoid his duty to repay debts worth billions of won.
The prosecution claimed the younger Cho should be arrested, given that two brokers who gave the money to him were already taken into custody. A court review of the request will be held probably on Thursday.
The prosecution earlier sought an arrest warrant for him, but a local court rejected to issue it on Oct. 9, saying the charges are disputable.
If the warrant is issued, he would be the third member of the former minister's family to be arrested.
Chung Kyung-sim, Cho's wife, was arrested last week on a total of 11 counts of charges including an alleged forgery of a school award for her daughter and a dubious investment in a private equity fund. A son of Cho's cousin involved in the fund was also arrested in mid-September.
(Yonhap)