A criminal complaint seeking an investigation into allegations that independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon quashed a police probe into his daughter's alleged falsified credentials while he served as justice minister has been transferred to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Police plan to assign the case after reviewing the complaint.
The complaint, filed with the Korean National Police Agency, was transferred to the Seoul agency on the 15th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said on the 16th. An official at the Seoul agency said the case would be assigned after a close review of its contents.
Civic groups including the Institute for Livelihood Economy and Voice of Seoul filed the complaint on the 14th with the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency and the Agency for Serious Crimes Investigation, naming Han and the prosecutors involved in the 2022-2023 investigation into the alleged falsified credentials. The alleged offenses are abuse of authority and dereliction of duty.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Public Crimes Investigation Unit received a complaint in May 2022 over the alleged falsified credentials of the daughter of Han, who was justice minister at the time. The unit decided in December the following year not to refer the case to prosecutors and closed it.
The allegations are that Han's daughter commissioned someone to ghostwrite a paper and published a plagiarized e-book to support her application to a prestigious U.S. university.
Instead of seeking a search warrant, police analyzed 11 sets of materials obtained by requesting them from overseas academic societies and other organizations. They cleared her of obstruction of business, citing the fact that the academic society to which her paper was submitted had not conducted a review.
The civic groups argued that investigators should determine whether Han was involved in the process by which prosecutors failed to send a request for cooperation to the Ministry of Justice. They also took issue with the fact that police closed the case without referring it to prosecutors after questioning only Han's spouse in writing.
The earlier decision not to refer the case to prosecutors may also be reviewed again. Kim Jong-cheol, acting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, said at a parliamentary audit on the 12th that he would not rule out the possibility of reopening the investigation if new facts came to light.