Police raid land ministry over alleged LH property speculation

Police raided the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Wednesday amid ongoing investigation into alleged land speculation by former and current employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH). This is the second police raid of LH over the property speculation scandal.

Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency said on Wednesday that 33 investigators simultaneously raided six places, including the ministry headquarters in Sejong, the LH headquarters in Jinju, and a Nonghyup branch in Siheung from 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

The latest raid was focused on how information about the government’s third new town project was leaked and how LH officials suspected of property speculation acquired the funds for land purchases. This is why police is intensively looking into the public housing development division and the land & housing office of the ministry.

In particular, the public housing development division, which is responsible for the selection of locations for new town, such as Gwangmyeong and Siheung, is highly likely to have been involved in the information leak. The land & housing office has become subject of raid since it is in charge of establishing public housing policies and supply plans.

The government joint investigation team said on Wednesday that it is currently conducting an internal investigation or investigating 37 cases and 198 people in total regarding alleged property speculation as of 9 a.m. A total of 182 reports were received at the police report center operated by the joint investigation team.


Ki-Beom Kwon kaki@donga.com