A special counsel team indicted Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Monday on charges of getting a longtime supporter to pay for opinion polls conducted by a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the mayoral election in 2021.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team, which is investigating corruption allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon Hee, said it indicted the mayor without physical detention on charges of violating the Political Funds Act.
The team suspects Oh got his supporter and businessman, Kim Han-jung, to pay 33 million won ($22,400) on his behalf to Myung Tae-kyun, the power broker, for 10 public opinion surveys conducted from January to February 2021.
The payment was allegedly made in five installments between February and March that year, to an employee of Future Korea Research Institute, a polling company effectively run by Myung, before Oh's election in April.
Former Seoul Deputy Mayor Kang Cheol-won, who was chief of staff of Oh's campaign at the time, allegedly exchanged questionnaires and discussed the polls with Myung at Oh's instructions.
Both Kang and Kim, the supporter, were also indicted on the same charges Monday.
Oh has denied the accusations, saying he never commissioned the surveys nor received them from Myung and that Kim's payment had nothing to do with him.
Meanwhile, Myung has claimed that he met with Oh seven times and that the now mayor begged him for help, claiming he needed an opinion poll that showed him beating his rival Na Kyung-won.
Kim, the supporter, has claimed the payment had nothing to do with Oh's campaign and that he simply helped Myung in the hopes he would put in a good word for Oh with Yoon Suk Yeol, who was elected president the following year.
Myung is known to have had close ties with Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
In a statement released after the announcement, Oh slammed the special counsel team for what he said was an indictment carried out at the orders of the ruling Democratic Party.
He also discounted Myung's opinion polls as "fabricated" and "fake."
"The special counsel's indictment will soon be revealed to be nothing but an 'offering indictment' for the Lee Jae Myung administration and political maneuvering," he said.
A conviction for receiving illegal political funds, banned under the Political Funds Act, could deal a severe blow to his career, as a confirmed fine of 1 million won or more would bar him from public office for five years, while a prison sentence would extend the ban to a decade. (Yonhap)
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