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Pocheon municipal government headquarters. (Yonhap) |
Police on Monday raided the homes and offices of local public servants and a council member in a widening investigation into land speculation nationwide.
Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency sent investigators to the home and office of a ruling Democratic Party council member of Siheung and the home and office of a Gwangmyeong municipal government employee.
Siheung and Gwangmyeong, both south of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, are at the center of a massive scandal sparked by allegations of land speculation by employees of the state housing developer, the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH).
Twenty LH officials are currently under investigation on suspicion of using insider information to purchase farmland mainly in Gwangmyeong-Siheung before the central government designated it as a major public housing development site last month.
According to police, the city lawmaker allegedly conspired with his 30-year-old daughter to buy land in an area of Siheung designated for redevelopment.
Meanwhile, the city government employee is suspected of jointly purchasing 430 million won ($378,000) worth of forest land in Gwangmyeong with three family members in July.
"We will carry out a strict investigation following due procedure and the law and determine whether there was any real estate speculation," a police official said.
In Pocheon, northern Gyeonggi Province, police sent investigators to search the home and office of a senior municipal government official.
The official, who was in charge of a railroad extension project, allegedly took out 4 billion won in loans to buy land and a building near a train station to be constructed along the extended route.
In the southeastern city of Busan, police investigators raided the headquarters of Busan Metropolitan Corp., which is affiliated with the city government, to seize material on alleged land speculation by one of its former employees.
The company fired the official in December for falsifying a contract while buying land in a new local town.The LH scandal is the police's first major case since it took some of the investigative powers of the prosecution in a structural reorganization earlier this year.
The sheer scale of the scandal has prompted calls for the prosecution to take the lead, particularly among those who question the police's investigative capability.
Following a meeting Monday, the Supreme Prosecutors Office said it plans to establish a 20-member team of prosecutors and research officers to assist the police's efforts. (Yonhap)
