hankyoreh

A police vehicle sits outside the hospital that Kim Man-bae was taken to on Dec. 15. (Yonhap)

Kim Man-bae, a central figure in the Daejang neighborhood development scandal, attempted to take his own life.

Prosecutors had been coming at Kim’s friends and associates from all directions.

Kim has refused to cooperate with the investigation aimed at Democratic Party chief Lee Jae-myung.

According to the Hankyoreh’s own reporting on Wednesday, Kim attempted to kill himself in his car on a road near the Yuljeon neighborhood of Suwon in Gyeonggi Province in the afternoon.

The previous day, prosecutors arrested people around him and even raided his lawyer’s office.

After this, he reportedly told people that “several people are suffering on my account.”

Feeling something was wrong, his lawyer tracked him down and traveled with him to the hospital.

None of his injuries are currently life-threatening.

Kim Man-bae, majority shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, speaks to reporters in this undated photo. (Yonhap)

Prosecutors were turning up the heat on Kim as of late, investigating him for allegedly concealing assets.

The previous day, they arrested Kim’s co-CEO of the asset management company Hwacheon Daeyu, Lee Han-seong, and other friends of Kim, and raided his house and office.

They also raided the office of Bae, Kim & Lee, the office of the law firm that has represented Kim amid the scandal, and even seized the mobile phone of Kim’s lawyer, a former prosecutor.

Unlike some of the other private business figures involved in the Daejang development case who changed their initial positions and are now testifying against Lee Jae-myung, Kim has stuck to his story.

Typical of this is how lawyer Nam Wook testified in court that Kim told him that 70 billion won in shares earmarked for Cheonhwa Dongin No. 1, an investor in the Daejang neighborhood development project, was the share of the mayor’s office.

Lee was the mayor of Seongnam at the time.

Kim, on the other hand, continues to claim that he was the owner of the shares.

Many of Nam’s claims are hearsay based on what Kim allegedly told him. Because Nam’s legal testimony becomes less persuasive as evidence if Kim denies them, many observers believe Kim is becoming a stumbling block in the prosecutor’s investigation into Lee.

By Jeon Gwang-joon, staff reporter

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