The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 306

Prosecutor, You’re Going Places! – Episode 306 (306/341)

Sword Dance (1)

“Ah, hello, Mr. Attorney General.”

Caught off guard by the sudden visit, Hwang Yoon-sung, the head of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office, couldn’t hide his fluster and even stammered.

“What, what brings you here…”

I frowned, taking a deep breath as if displeased.

“Does the Western District Prosecutors’ Office not even offer a cup of tea before inquiring about the purpose of a visit?”

“I apologize.”

He hastily instructed a staff member outside to prepare coffee and then guided me to the sofa.

“Please, have a seat over here.”

I naturally took the best seat.

Casually crossing my legs.

Chief Prosecutor Hwang Yoon-sung fidgeted, barely perching on the edge of the sofa, looking awkward.

Instead of speaking, I kept my mouth shut and simply scanned the office.

Sometimes, silence is more intimidating than direct words.

Judging by Chief Prosecutor Hwang Yoon-sung’s expression, which couldn’t find a place to rest his gaze, it was definitely working.

After a while, a staff member brought coffee, breaking the heavy atmosphere.

“The coffee is good.”

“Ah, is that so? We recently got a new coffee machine, and the feedback from guests has been all positive.”

I sharply furrowed my brow.

“The people’s tax money isn’t used to provide prosecutors with good coffee to drink.”

“…I apologize.”

I put down the coffee cup and continued.

“You’re curious as to why I came, aren’t you?”

“…”

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

Only then did he manage to open his mouth.

“I received the message that you were coming just a little while ago…”

“I couldn’t help it. The decision to come was made just now.”

“…Yes?”

I paused for a moment, took another sip of coffee, and then spoke.

“How old are Chief Prosecutor Hwang’s children?”

“The first is twenty-three, and the second entered university this year.”

I figured they would be around that age since he was about ten years older than me.

Of course, being older doesn’t mean I treat them as superiors.

In this world, rank is everything.

That’s the reason I mix honorifics and casual speech with him.

Only my people, even if they are subordinates, are treated properly.

“Both in their twenties, they’re all grown up now.”

I slowly nodded.

“It’s about time they became independent.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Talking about his children seemed to loosen him up, and he began to speak fluently.

“They’re even working part-time to earn their own living expenses, which is so admirable… Since it’s a national university, the tuition isn’t too expensive, and they said they’ll earn it themselves next semester, you know?”

I smiled faintly at him, who was wearing a pleased expression.

“That’s good timing.”

I smiled gently.

“I was worried it would be difficult to send them allowance money in the future.”

“…Yes?”

He tilted his head, not yet fully grasping the meaning.

“Chief Prosecutor Hwang.”

I leaned closer to him.

“You should have done your laundry better, shouldn’t you have?”

I lightly brushed his shoulder with my finger, wiping it off and flicking it onto the floor.

“There was a lot of dust on it.”

“What do you mean by that…”

“WM Life Insurance.”

A look of dismay crossed his face.

“You’ve been looking out for them more than once or twice, haven’t you?”

“…”

Hwang Yoon-sung’s mouth clamped shut.

I tossed a document from my pocket and said.

“The rulings related to other insurance companies are all different, but strangely, in the rulings related to WM Life Insurance, the prosecutors of the Western District Prosecutors’ Office always won. All guilty verdicts.”

He hesitated before finally speaking.

“That’s just a coincidence…”

“Five years in Busan, four years in the Western District Prosecutors’ Office before coming here, and one year as the head of this Western District Prosecutors’ Office. Adding it all up, the probability of guilty verdicts for ten years is 96%. Do you think that’s a figure that can be considered a coincidence?”

Civil lawsuits often arise in the process of paying out insurance claims.

Lawsuits between ordinary people trying to receive the advertised amount and insurance companies trying to reduce the insurance payout by exploiting ambiguous clauses.

In these civil lawsuits, the outcome of the criminal lawsuit greatly influences the result.

It’s an inevitable structure.

However, if the prosecutors use their power in the criminal lawsuit to obtain a verdict based on the policyholder’s fault, the result is obvious.

The likelihood of the insurance company paying the insurance money decreases significantly.

Even if they pay a small percentage, there is a big difference in the amount.

That’s not all.

Large corporations have their legal teams directly handle the lawsuits, but for ordinary people, the cost of hiring a lawyer is considerable, and many don’t even dare to consider it because the process is unfamiliar.

Moreover, considering the time and money involved in the trial process, many people give up on the civil lawsuit itself.

In the end, it’s the same as the insurance company extorting ordinary people.

And this man was not only condoning it but also encouraging it.

“Frankly speaking, isn’t it normal for large corporations to pay according to the clauses? It’s not like they’re trying to squeeze out money that doesn’t exist; they’re just asking to receive what was initially advertised.”

My voice naturally rose.

“It’s all too obvious that you’re trying to save a penny or two, but aren’t you ashamed of taking kickbacks and forming collusive relationships like that?”

“…”

“Large corporations can maintain themselves well even without that money. But that’s not the case for ordinary people. They cry and laugh over a few tens or hundreds of dollars. We live off their taxes, so how can we stab them in the back?”

He couldn’t say anything.

Even if he had a mouth, he wouldn’t have anything to say.

But I had no intention of letting it go.

“Chief Prosecutor Hwang, say something.”

“That’s…”

Hwang Yoon-sung glanced around, avoided my gaze, and opened his mouth.

“I don’t know every single minor trial in detail…”

I swept my hair back and opened my mouth.

“Are you still not grasping the situation? Do I have to show you the evidence before you confess properly?”

“No, Mr. Attorney General.”

He struggled to lift his buttocks from the chair and knelt on the floor in a hurry.

Without me saying it, he must have realized that my direct visit here meant that I had solid evidence in my hands.

From the beginning, he would know that a person named Choi Seo-joon wouldn’t come this far otherwise.

“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

As I was considering making this case public, I additionally investigated the victims of the WM Insurance-related cases on the way here.

And I even confirmed the news of a man who committed suicide after being burdened with debt because he couldn’t receive this insurance money through a short news article online.

Since it was information I found in just 1-2 hours, there would be countless more if I looked further.

He even made people die like that, and this man is begging for forgiveness, just to save his own skin.

Perhaps that’s why.

The moment I saw him begging with his hands, my anger flared up.

“F*ck!”

The profanity echoed softly in the office.

“Is this a school? If you say you’re sorry, I’ll forgive you, and then I’ll tell you not to do it again, and then it’s over with discipline?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

My voice rose without me realizing it.

“You should go apologize to those victims. Thanks to you putting pressure on your subordinate prosecutors to get a little kickback, the bellies of large corporations are full of oil, and ordinary people are suffering to the point of death. If you had thought about that, you wouldn’t have been able to play around like you did.”

“…”

“Even if large corporations or chaebols [large family-owned conglomerates] lose a few pennies, they still live comfortably and warmly. It’s okay if you just nibble on the oil stains of those guys. But you shouldn’t be stabbing ordinary people in the back who live day by day.”

Hwang Yoon-sung couldn’t say anything more and hung his head.

Only after scolding him to my heart’s content did my emotions subside.

“Hoo.”

I took a deep breath and then.

Spoke in a cold voice.

“Take off your clothes.”

“…Yes?”

His pupils widened as if he was flustered.

“I’m telling you to get out of the prosecutor’s office now.”

“But…”

I took a breath and calmly opened my mouth again.

“Do I have to kick you out myself?”

“…”

“It would be better for Chief Prosecutor Hwang to resign voluntarily than to have the evidence exposed to the world and be dismissed.”

He bit his lip and asked me.

“If I resign, these matters…”

“I won’t hold you accountable.”

At that moment, his eyes sparkled.

“Decide now whether you’ll hold out here or leave willingly.”

A long silence followed.

The conclusion he reached was obvious.

“I will leave.”

“You’ve made a good decision.”

Without waiting any longer, I got up from my seat.

“I’ll give you three days. Settle everything within that time.”

“Three days is too short…”

“It’s three days.”

I cut him off, leaving no room for argument, and left the office.

As soon as I went down to the parking lot, Yoon Seol-ha was waiting with the car ready.

“We’ll head to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.”

I only nodded and closed my eyes, burying my head in the seat.

Hwang Yoon-sung’s resignation will be submitted within three days.

Of course, it’s me, the Prosecutor General, who will handle this.

He’ll be dismissed this week.

Considering public opinion, he’ll take a break for a while and then enter a large law firm with the title of a former chief prosecutor and rake in money.

It goes without saying, but I have no intention of watching that happen.

In fact, uncovering his information and punishing him while he’s still a current chief prosecutor is even better to screw him over.

However, if Hwang Yoon-sung holds the title of chief prosecutor, he’ll never try to step down easily.

He’ll grit his teeth and stubbornly hold on, so it’ll take a long time.

That’s why I made him step down from his position as chief prosecutor to deal with it quickly.

Of course, I promised not to punish Hwang Yoon-sung.

But that was me, not other prosecutors.

Frankly speaking, a promise with a criminal who sucks the marrow out of ordinary people is not important.

From the beginning, a guy who swore to uphold the justice of the Republic of Korea as a prosecutor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute shouldn’t expect anything if he takes the lead in destroying justice.

Once his resignation is accepted, the prosecutors of the soon-to-be-established Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials will bare their claws and pounce on him.

Furthermore, the media will report that he made a flight-like resignation to avoid responsibility.

In other words.

Instead of entering a law firm.

He will end up in a cold prison.

***

-Former Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office Chief Prosecutor Hwang Yoon-sung, Finally Arrested… Newly Transformed Prosecution!

“Wow, isn’t this crazy?”

“I know.”

Two prosecutors were holding newspapers in the smoking room and sighing deeply.

“According to my colleague in the Inspection Department, they’ve started investigating prosecutors all over Seoul.”

“All of them?”

“Well, not *all* of them, obviously.”

I could tell without being told.

Prosecutors with a history of riding the Sung Tae-hyun line [a political faction or alliance].

They were the main targets.

In short, retaliation had begun.

Of course, if you were clean, there wouldn’t be a problem, but there were hardly any prosecutors among those who rode the line who didn’t have a speck of dust on them.

From the beginning, those kinds of people wouldn’t have joined the line.

But I couldn’t even open my mouth to the media.

If even a little bit leaked out, I would immediately become a target.

“Haa, this is driving me crazy.”

“Choi Seo-joon, that bastard. I didn’t know he would start a sword dance [a metaphor for a sweeping purge or crackdown] as soon as he became the Prosecutor General.”

He shuddered and said.

“Are we going to have to take off our clothes too?” [forced to resign]

“Eh, surely it won’t come this far? I thought this would happen, so I immediately moved to Gyeonggi-do as soon as Shin Dong-hyun was elected.”

However, the male prosecutor who was listening sighed deeply with a serious expression.

“I don’t think it’s that safe here either… If I had known this would happen, I would have moved to the countryside altogether.”

“I don’t think it’s safe there either.”

“If it’s Choi Seo-joon…”

“…”

I thought it was impossible, but I had a feeling that Choi Seo-joon’s evil hand would reach them soon.

And soon, that feeling turned into conviction.