Jinan County Gift Certificate Irregularities: Investigation Team Leader Under Suspicion

In Jinan County, an unusual phenomenon occurred where local gift certificates, issued during the three months of February, March, and April leading up to the election, were completely sold out by an unknown party within three days of issuance. "There are gift certificates issued by Jinan County. However, leading up to the election, during these three months – February, March, April – as soon as these gift certificates were issued, some big buyer, we don't know who, swept up all the issued gift certificates in just about three days." Signs of an abnormally high circulation of gift certificates in markets and other places after this mass depletion were also detected, raising suspicions of illegal distribution.

Jinan County issues approximately 1.5 billion won worth of local gift certificates each month, with a purchase limit of 500,000 won per person per month. However, in March, April, and May of this year, an unusual phenomenon recurred where all gift certificates were sold out within two to three days of issuance. "Jinan County issues gift certificates worth around 1.5 billion won per month. But coincidentally, and strangely, in March, April, and May, the gift certificates ran out within two or three days of being issued." This phenomenon was observed consistently across all nine sales outlets in the county, raising the possibility that a specific group systematically bought up the gift certificates.

345 local residents submitted a petition along with a complaint about the gift certificates to the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency. They worried that assigning the case to the Jinan Police Station could compromise the fairness of the investigation, so they even attached a warning to the complaint, asking to prevent its transfer to Jinan. "They collected 345 petitions and attached them to the gift certificate complaint, explicitly stating that it should absolutely not be sent down to Jinan, even including a warning. They attached the 345 petitions to the front and back of the complaint and submitted it to the police agency. Guess what? Was it sent down? Or not? It was sent down again." However, despite these efforts, the case was ultimately transferred down to the Jinan Police Station.

The prosecution initially investigated the Jinan gift certificate case directly, but it was confirmed that by the time of the interview last Saturday, the prosecution had transferred it to the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency. This is analyzed to be due to the prosecution's lack of capacity to investigate new cases ahead of the launch of the Central Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Service in October. "When I interviewed last Saturday, the prosecution was directly investigating the gift certificate case, but they transferred it back to the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency. Because of the new agency being established, the prosecution effectively has no capacity to investigate all new cases." The Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency is reportedly considering whether to reassign this case.

With the complete abolition of supplementary investigations by the prosecution, a structural problem has arisen: if the police suppress a case or fail to investigate it properly, the prosecution cannot intervene again. As a result, even if the police conceal a case, there is no alternative, leaving no choice but to entrust the case to the police. "Now there is no choice. If the police continue to suppress cases like that, we have no choice but to hand them over to the police."

The Jinan gift certificate case has been held by the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency since it was decided to be transferred from the prosecution on August 31. The host stated, "Anyway, this case is in Jeonbuk, and the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency is still holding onto it and seems to be treading carefully." He pointed out that the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency appears to be hesitant and not processing the case promptly.

Suspicions regarding the fairness of the gift certificate case investigation have been raised because Jeong Yong-hee, the investigation team leader at Jinan Police Station, has a sister known to be a close associate of Jinan County Mayor Jeon Choon-sung. The host said, "There's one more reason why they don't trust the Jinan Police Station. Jeong Yong-hee, the investigation team leader at Jinan Police Station, his sister is rumored to be Mayor Jeon Choon-sung's closest associate." This suggests that such a family relationship could influence the investigation of election-related complaints and accusations.

Investigation Team Leader Jeong Yong-hee was appointed as the investigation team leader at Jinan Police Station in January 2026. At the time, rumors circulated internally that there was a different candidate originally designated for the position, raising questions about the sudden appointment of Team Leader Jeong, a former forensics expert, as the investigation team leader. "Investigation Team Leader Jeong Yong-hee was appointed as the investigation team leader here in January of 2026. According to rumors, there was an internally designated candidate for an investigation team leader who could conduct investigations there."

Jeong, the sister of Investigation Team Leader Jeong Yong-hee, served as the audit team leader and head of the Culture and Tourism Department at the Jinan County Office. Notably, after Team Leader Jeong was appointed as investigation team leader in January, his sister was promoted to deputy town mayor of Bugimyeon during personnel changes in June, right after the election, thus rapidly advancing through key positions. "His sister was the audit team leader at Jinan County Office, then the head of the Culture and Tourism Department, and this time, after her brother Jeong Yong-hee arrived in January." This coincidence of the brother's appointment and the sister's promotion fuels suspicions related to personnel matters.

This change in investigation team leader occurred while an investigation into the manipulation of opinion polls was underway. The host commented, "From the perspective of Mayor Jeon Choon-sung, of course, we don't have evidence yet, but he might have wanted the most trustworthy person to handle this case." This raises the possibility that Mayor Jeon Choon-sung intended to entrust the case to the most reliable individual. This leads to the suspicion that the investigation team leader's personnel placement was not a mere coincidence but had an ulterior motive to influence the case's handling.