Photo: Fresh and sealed bank notes seized from Master Geonjin. Credit: Yonhap News.
The special prosecutor’s investigations of Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s various scandals are uncovering signs that the Public Prosecutors’ Office 검찰청, formerly headed by Yoon, was slow-walking its investigation of the former president. The revelation, involving destruction of critical evidence, has sparked a formal investigation over the PPO.
On August 21, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office 대검찰청 launched a formal investigation into the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office 서울남부지방검찰청 over its handling of the paper band on a sealed bundle of cash obtained from the raid of Master Geonjin 건진법사, one of many shamans that advised Yoon. The bundle of cash and its paper seal were particularly incriminating because the banknotes were freshly printed by the Korea Minting & Security Corporation (KOMSCO) 조폐공사 and divided into a bundle of KRW 50m (USD 36k), with an official security seal and serial numbers certifying the authenticity and provenance.
Official KOMSCO cash bundles 관봉권 are available only to the government and large banks that receive freshly printed cash directly from the Bank of Korea 한국은행, and are never given to individuals or private companies otherwise. The KOMSCO bundle found in Master Geonjin’s possession is a near-certain indication that he was connected to a governmental organ with a repository of discretionary cash - such as the presidential office, the spy agency, or the PPO itself. The provenance of the cash would be specified by the seal originally securing the KOMSCO bundle, which is designed to track the chain of custody from the mint to the Bank of Korea and the ultimate recipient.
Prosecutors obtained the bundle of cash in December 2024, and claim not to have realized until this April that the seal was missing. Internal inspectors from the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office found the cash bundle tied with rubber bands, with the identifying seal gone. The prosecutors, who are holdovers from the Yoon administration, claim that a junior investigator mistakenly discarded the seal while counting the cash.
The prosecutors’ explanation makes little sense. There would have been no need to count the official KOMSCO bundle, since the amount of cash in any sealed bundle is both known and guaranteed by the mint and the central bank. Even if it had been necessary, there is no plausible excuse for the PPO to simply discard the official seal, a key piece of evidence that establishes the flow of money between the government and a mere shaman. Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho 정성호 법무부 장관 said the missing evidence was “a very serious matter” and directed the Ministry to “take all necessary measures.”
