Yoon’s conviction in election law case could put PPP on hook for 39.7B won in campaign expenses

If the sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court, the People Power Party could have to pay back to the state nearly 40 billion won in reimbursed campaign expenses

Yoon Suk-yeol, the former president of South Korea. (Yonhap)

A Seoul court on Monday found Yoon Suk-yeol guilty of spreading false information while running in the 2022 presidential election, which he eventually won. The court sentenced him to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years. As the sentence exceeds the 1 million won penalty threshold for invalidating Yoon’s election as president, the People Power Party to which he belonged will have to return 39.7 billion won (US$27 million) in campaign expenses to the National Election Commission if the ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court. The special counsel team that indicted Yoon had sought a sentence of two years behind bars. Yoon had been indicted for allegedly spreading false information during his time as the People Power Party’s nominee for president, such as when he claimed on Jan. 17, 2022, that he had been introduced to Jeon Seong-bae, a shaman who goes by the name Geonjin, by someone affiliated with the party, and that he had never met Jeon with his wife, Kim Keon-hee. Yoon was also accused of spreading false information by saying during a debate in December 2021 hosted by the Kwanhun Club that during his time as a prosecutor, he had never introduced a certain lawyer to the former head of the Yongsan tax office who was under investigation by police. Such an introduction would have violated legal standards of conduct for jurists. The Seoul Central District Court found that both claims constituted spreading false information. By Oh Yeon-seo, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]