You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 636

You Have Been Defended – Episode 636

Thud! Thuck! Thwack!

The sound of investigators striking the doorknob echoed on the second basement floor.

This door wasn’t the kind of steel door you’d see in a bank vault, like the one I’d found behind the vending machine at the Ribbon Medical Center.

It was just an ordinary wooden door, so ordinary that I thought it would be faster to break the door itself.

“Just tear it off now!”

As the mangled doorknob hung loosely from the door, the investigator put down his tools and grabbed the knob.

After putting his weight into it and pulling hard a few times, the doorknob came right off, and the door opened.

“What’s this now?”

There was another door inside the opened door.

This time, it was a steel door like the one I had seen at Ribbon Medical Center.

People might think these kinds of devices only exist in the media, but you should rather think that the media is imitating reality.

I wasn’t surprised because I had seen it so many times in my previous life when I was in the Special Investigation Department of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

When I investigated a tax evasion case of the chairman of a company in the top 50 of the business world, there were such devices in the chairman’s office, finance team, secretary’s office, and chairman’s residence.

Another time, I had to arrest a missing key man, but tracking him down was impossible, and putting him on the wanted list was useless.

Then, suspecting something, I conducted another house search and found him hiding in a secret space inside the house.

Moreover, that secret space was hidden by plywood attached along the wood grain of the wooden building’s wall, so we couldn’t find the door during the first search.

Compared to that time, this is classic.

“We need a key for this one. It’s quite sturdy. We can’t break it with the tools we have.”

The investigator said, pointing to the keyhole in the steel door handle.

“Request support from the fire department. Tell them we need a steel door opened.”

The fire department sent personnel to Go Sang-jun’s house in less than 10 minutes.

“This way.”

The investigator took the firefighters who arrived on the second basement floor via the elevator to the door.

The firefighters skillfully used their tools to open the steel door in an instant.

Then, a door that looked like a fire shutter appeared.

“He really does everything.”

Heo Min-woo muttered to himself, almost inaudibly.

When the firefighter dented the fire shutter, the interior space was revealed.

It was a space of about ten square meters [approximately 108 square feet].

Lockers and bookshelves were placed on each wall.

Of course, the bookshelves were empty, and there would be nothing in the lockers even if you opened them.

In the center, there was a desk, a shredder, and a large number of boxes piled up.

And in front of it was a young man.

“Come this way.”

The investigators said to the man as they came inside with the blue boxes.

Then the man stepped aside without saying a word.

The shredder was stopped, but he might have anticipated our location while we were opening the steel door and turned off the power.

I approached the shredder and put my hand on it.

It’s hot.

“It looks like he was shredding until just now.”

Said the investigator who opened the shredder.

It was full of contents.

Then, I checked the inside of the boxes piled on the floor.

They were full of documents that had not yet been shredded and residues that had already been shredded.

I picked up a bundle of intact documents from among them.

“It’s a bank account transaction history.”

The account holders are all unfamiliar names.

Even though I had memorized all the names of the employees belonging to the Strategy Office before the official investigation of the Special Investigation Team began.

“This is also an item to be confiscated, but you’re saying he was shredding it in here?”

It meant that it was evidence that had to be destroyed even if he was suspected of destroying evidence.

What was the account list that Wooshin had to keep at home until the full-scale investigation of the Special Investigation Team began?

Considering the reason for the existence of this basement 2nd floor, it wouldn’t be related to the company’s finances or management.

“…….”

The employee didn’t answer.

“You know you have no excuse even if you’re arrested on the spot for being at the scene immediately after destroying evidence, right?”

Heo Min-woo called an investigator and entrusted him with the employee’s handling.

I was lost in thought as I watched the investigators taking the confiscated items.

What should Go Sang-jun prioritize now?

It overlaps with what the special investigation team should prioritize.

Now, the special investigation team must focus on eradicating the political figures who received illegal lobbying from Wooshin and tracking the overseas accounts used for Go Sang-jun’s human trafficking.

Go Sang-jun would have thoroughly prepared the overseas accounts from the beginning, so there is no reason to be destroying evidence until now.

So the accounts in the shredded documents must be related to the money Wooshin gave to political figures.

Isn’t it time to classify the people in the captured ledger and those who have not yet been captured, and calculate how much evidence the special investigation team can catch?

These documents are the result of the employees spending all night in the basement 2nd floor to analyze everything.

“It’s all done.”

There were five blue boxes worth of content.

The shredded residue was put in separate containers according to its origin so that it would not be mixed up, as it might have to be matched.

“It’s over.”

That’s how the search and seizure ended after 7 hours.

It was the first time it had taken this long at a private residence.

It was already dark outside.

“Special Prosecutor.”

I was watching the investigators move the blue boxes when I heard Kim Jong-seok’s voice.

“I’m dying after holding back cigarettes for 7 hours. No, I haven’t smoked for 8 hours because I’ve been busy moving since I got the search warrant.”

He was smoking with the investigators.

“It’s my first time being dispatched to the Special Investigation Team, but do you usually come to the search and seizure site yourself, Special Prosecutor?”

The investigator asked as he lit a cigarette.

Kim Jong-seok chuckled at the words and retorted.

“Usually not. Our Special Prosecutor is just eccentric.”

“Still, it seems like the Special Prosecutor came in person and quickly cut off the lawyer’s nonsense. It’s good because the decision maker is on site.”

“I saw in the article that they were busy attacking you, saying that you’re young and might become a puppet Special Prosecutor. What kind of puppet even directs the site? I wish those reporters would come to our Special Prosecutor’s office even once.”

“A puppet Special Prosecutor? Which reporter said that? Was it Iljung Daily?”

“It must have been. I guess they think everything they write is true once they write it.”

“I was really amazed that you found that secret space.”

The investigators threw in a word each.

I wouldn’t have been able to find it this quickly if it weren’t for the blueprint.

I might have suspected the existence of a secret space, but Go Sang-jun’s house is a large mansion consisting of two 2-story buildings above ground and two basement floors.

You can’t knock on every wall, and if you think about the space on the floor or ceiling that isn’t a wall, it’s virtually impossible to find without a tip.

“I was lucky.”

I replied appropriately.

“I saw at a glance that they were shredding account usage statements. Is it a borrowed-name account after all? What’s the purpose? A slush fund?”

“Creating a slush fund is the main purpose, but if you think about how Go Yoon-soo used the accounts in the names of the Strategy Office employees, there must have been other purposes as well.”

Kim Jong-seok, who had only been listening to the investigators’ conversation, opened his mouth.

“Other purposes?”

“Some of the political figures who Wooshin bribed have been revealed through Kim Mi-ja’s ledger, but isn’t that just a small part? According to Kim Mi-ja’s statement and interview, only those who were determined to share life and death with Wooshin went to the *yujeong* [exclusive high-end bar], so even though there are more than 15 years of data accumulated in the ledger, there are only 51 Koreans. Even 16 of those carefully selected bastards lived well and died.”

In addition, there were many people whose statute of limitations had expired and whose right to prosecute was presumed to have been lost.

There are only 8 people who can be definitively indicted right now.

However, if it is revealed that they have been receiving bribes from Wooshin even after the time written in the ledger, it becomes possible to indict them by applying the comprehensive crime.

“That’s right.”

“But would Wooshin only have bribed that many people?”

As Kim Jong-seok said, the people written in the ledger received a lot of money and gave Wooshin tremendous profits.

However, Wooshin doesn’t only give money to people who can give them immediate benefits.

The purpose is to put political figures in debt to Wooshin in the future, so they also extend their reach to people who are expected to go to high positions.

No matter how much money it is, the number of people who received black money from Wooshin will be much more than the 51 people in the ledger.

And to manage the money to give to those numerous political figures, borrowed-name accounts are essential.

The traces of that would be found in the accounts found through this search and seizure.

“Then, if we poke around those accounts, we might be able to see the flow of when and how much was given to whom.”

“Yes, that’s right. But when they gave the money, they would have withdrawn cash and handed it over, so you wouldn’t know just by looking at the accounts, and you’d have to investigate the bank tellers at the branches.”

The content I was organizing in my head flowed out through Kim Jong-seok’s mouth.

There was a reason he was the ace of the special forces.

I felt relieved that I had properly selected the dispatched prosecutor.

“No matter how much it’s for slush funds and bribes, where did they borrow all those borrowed names from? Just looking at the un-shredded documents, there seem to be more than 500. There were more shredded ones, so there must be more than 1,000. I knew they were using the names of the Strategy Office employees, but there are far more than the number of Strategy Office employees. At this point, we should assume that they even mobilized the names of executives and their families, right?”

The investigator asked as if he was fed up.

“Still, it’s fortunate if it’s around 1,000. Among the ones I’ve seen so far, there have been cases where they were running about 7,000.”

“7,000?”

The investigator opened his mouth as if his jaw would drop.

“Where is that again?”

“It was GW Group.”

“Ah, that case where the treasurer committed suicide, right? Was that in 2005? My boss did that case. I didn’t know.”

“Yes. It started in 2005 and ended in 2006.”

“The *chaebols* [large family-owned conglomerates] make a deal with the bank on purpose, so they must have a lot of accounts to run.”

“So we need to be even more prepared.”

The investigators sighed deeply.

They seemed worried about the amount of work that would be given to them.

“Don’t worry. The Special Prosecutor brought in the aces from the National Tax Service in preparation for times like this.”

Kim Jong-seok looked at me and smiled.

“We’re done organizing, so we’ll leave now.”

At that time, the investigator who was loading the confiscated items into the car ran over here and said.

“Are you going home now, Special Prosecutor? It’s already past 10 p.m.”

Then Kim Jong-seok moved his gaze as if trying to find a vehicle with an empty seat and asked.

“No, I’m going to stop by the Special Prosecutor’s office and try to grasp the contents of today’s search and seizure, even roughly.”

“Go home. You’ll need 10 bodies even if you make everything go through your hands. There are 63 aces in the Special Investigation Team.”

At that time, a car entered the alley.

It cheerfully honked twice.

Kim Jong-seok waved his hand towards it and said to me.

“Attorney Kang is here. This pro told me to send the Special Prosecutor’s driver and told me not to let you come to the Special Prosecutor’s office.”

“……Is it that bad?”

“This pro says that you basically have an inherent distrust of people, and you think it’s best to do it yourself because there are many people who don’t produce as much output as you. I think that’s right.”

Choi Jong-hyun, Jo Bong-joon, Secretary Oh, Heo Min-woo, Kang Min-jae.

Could it be because I’ve been working with these limited people for so long?

I don’t feel comfortable entrusting important tasks to people I can’t confidently say I know well.

“It’s been like that since the days when you worked with this pro, so it’s been over 4 years, right? He said that people wouldn’t have changed during that time.”

Was I like that even when I was a prosecutor?

It’s been 14 years since then, so I don’t remember.

“A special prosecutor is equivalent to a high prosecutor. Have you ever seen a high prosecutor review all these documents?”

“…….”

“Everyone will work hard. Please trust them. I’ll see you tomorrow, Special Prosecutor.”

After saying goodbye to Kim Jong-seok and turning around, Kang Min-jae, who was in the driver’s seat, opened the window and peeked out.

“Are you Cha Joo-han?”

And he asked a strange question with a very serious face.

“What am I if I’m not Cha Joo-han?”

“I came to isolate Cha Joo-han patient because you have workaholic symptoms. Get in.”

Am I really that bad?