Special Prosecutor Requests Arrest Warrant for Audit Committee Member Yoo Byungho over Suspicions of Inadequate Audit on Presidential Residence Relocation

Custody Sought Just One Day After Interrogation
Suspicion of Concealing and Minimizing 21Gram’s Role in Construction

Kwon Changyoung’s Second Special Comprehensive Prosecutor Team has moved to secure the custody of Yoo Byungho, Audit Committee member of the Board of Audit and Inspection, who is suspected of undue involvement in the audit process concerning the relocation of the presidential residence.

Yonhap News Agency

On July 14, the special prosecutor's team announced that they had requested a pre-trial detention warrant for Yoo on charges of abuse of authority and interfering with the exercise of rights. This comes just one day after questioning Yoo as a suspect.

Yoo is accused of being involved in reducing and concealing the audit results related to the relocation of the presidential residence while he served as Secretary General of the Board of Audit and Inspection under the administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

After Yoon Suk-yeol won the presidential election in March 2022, he relocated the presidential office to the Yongsan Ministry of National Defense building and the presidential residence to the Foreign Minister’s official residence in Hannam-dong. Subsequently, as civil groups requested a public audit into suspicions surrounding the relocation, the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an audit.

According to its audit report published in September 2024, the Board of Audit and Inspection stated that Yoon’s team had tentatively selected the Foreign Minister’s official residence as the new presidential residence, and that 21Gram, known for its relationship with First Lady Kim Keonhee, was chosen as the interior construction contractor.

However, the Board of Audit and Inspection concluded that, while acknowledging that all contractors were selected through private contracts, it was difficult to determine that this constituted a violation of the law.

The special prosecutor's team suspects that the Board of Audit and Inspection discovered that 21Gram was responsible not only for interior work but for the overall construction, including extensions, but did not properly reflect this in its report. They believe that the Board of Audit and Inspection did not sufficiently clarify how 21Gram, which does not hold a general construction license, obtained the contract for the presidential residence project.

Appearing for questioning by the special prosecutor's team the previous day, Yoo firmly denied all allegations, stating, "The special prosecution is attempting to construct a fictitious scenario and fabricate a crime where there is none, merely based on routine tasks performed by the auditors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.