Yoo Seung-min: "My Daughter's Faculty Hiring Was Fair... Political Probe Meant to Humiliate Me"

Police refer four, including former lawmaker Yoo, to prosecutors on obstruction charges
Yoo: "I will prove my innocence during the indictment and trial proceedings"

Former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min pushed back after being referred to the Prosecution Office on suspicion of obstruction of business in connection with allegations that his daughter, Yoo Dam, a professor at Incheon National University, received preferential treatment in her appointment, calling it "a politically motivated investigation and audit carried out to humiliate and persecute me."

In a social media post that day, Yoo said, "I never committed obstruction of business in connection with the hiring of my daughter, Yoo Dam, as a full-time faculty member in the Department of International Trade at Incheon National University," adding, "The hiring process was fair and legitimate."

Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

He claimed, "Over the past year, the police and the Board of Audit and Inspection have subjected dozens of Incheon National University officials to exhaustive investigations," adding, "During the last parliamentary audit, they even enlisted the Ministry of Education to investigate allegations including plagiarism in research papers at Korea University, but the university's ethics committee concluded that there was no issue."

He continued, "The police and the Board of Audit and Inspection are determined to fabricate charges that do not exist and pin them on us," adding, "I will reveal the truth during the prosecution and trial process and prove my innocence."

He also said, "Even if the police are made tools of authoritarian rule and used to persecute political opponents, they cannot fabricate crimes that do not exist," and added, "Political investigations will come back like a boomerang and inevitably become their own comeuppance."

Earlier that morning, police booked four people, including Yoo and Incheon National University President Lee In-jae, without detention on suspicion of obstruction of business and referred them to the Prosecution Office. They are suspected of interfering with the university's hiring process when Professor Yoo was hired in the second semester of last year as a professor in the Department of International Trade at the university's College of Global Economics and Business.

Police also charged President Lee and two Incheon National University professors with violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. However, reports said there was no evidence of money or other valuables changing hands.

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