The inspector is getting promoted! - C7

After finishing the briefing, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Seung-soo gave a hollow laugh and said.

“You really ate a lot.”

Song Hyun-seong also gasped in amazement, but in the midst of it all, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kim Seok-won alone maintained a poker face and spoke.

“Did you say Choi Seo-jun?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Does this look certain to you?”

As the question devoid of any playfulness echoed in my ears, cold sweat automatically began to trickle down.

Are you saying that these pieces of evidence are not conclusive?

No.

Generally, with this level of evidence, the investigation does not conclude with the suspect being stripped.

After submitting the resignation letter, I was subjected to additional investigation.

I finished reviewing it after going over it several times.

Wait a minute, if it were a standard test, this would be enough, but this case is special.

The person who has committed this level of corruption and made it to their current position without a single scratch is none other than Im Seong-jin.

There must be more than one person who had the same mindset as Shin Yong-ho.

Nevertheless, he survived, very cleanly.

You need to think rationally.

We should judge not from the perspective of Shin Yong-ho’s friend who was wronged, but from the objective standpoint of the prosecutor.

The decision will not be made by me, but by the third-party judge.

While I was organizing my thoughts, Kim Seok-won spoke up again.

“If you were Lim Sung-jin, what do you think you would have done?”

If it’s Lim Sung-jin.

If I were Im Seong-jin, wouldn’t I have set up some kind of safeguard while committing such a huge crime?

There’s no way that could happen.

No matter how much you trust your subordinate, you wouldn’t leave room for them to uncover your wrongdoing, knowing that you would eventually have to get rid of them.

That means there is a way out.

Even if it doesn’t show with the evidence I have, I can’t say it’s perfect unless I look at his cards.

There must be some part of you that still believes.

I have thought too simply until now.

If you think about it, the corruption evidence prepared by Shin Yong-ho is not that of Chief Prosecutor Lim Sung-jin, but that of the Economic Crime Investigation Division.

Although Lim Sung-jin is the head of the Economic Crime Investigation Division, it means there is no clear evidence against him.

Damn, I was short-sighted.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

“It seems certain to take down the Economic Crime Investigation Division, but it might not be enough to bring down Im Seong-jin.”

Kim Seok-won finally nodded.

“That’s right.”

Surprised by those words, Song Hyun-seong examined the materials once more and let out a faint exclamation.

Kim Seok-won looked at me and continued speaking.

“Of course, I’m not trying to blame you.” This alone is tremendous evidence and will be a great help to me. Even if I can’t take down Deputy Director Lim Sung-jin with this card, I can at least make him stagger.”

He twisted the corners of his mouth once again.

“If all his hands and feet were cut off, even someone like Lim Seong-jin would probably keep a low profile for a while.”

Prosecutor Park Seung-soo, who had been observing the atmosphere, spoke up.

“For the time being, I will organize the evidence myself.” It wouldn’t be good if it leaked to the outside for no reason.

“Don’t do that, just be with that friend.”

Kim Seok-won pointed at me with his chin and asked.

“Hey, you don’t have anything urgent in Gwangju, do you?”

“Ah, yes.” There isn’t any.

“Okay.” For the time being, come up and stay.

Please provide the text you would like to have translated.

There was a problem with having to go to work at the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, so I was worried, but it was resolved with a single phone call from Kim Seok-won.

I wasn’t officially assigned to Seoul, but it was processed as a business trip for work support.

Indeed, the power is impressive.

At that level, it seems that there are certain authorities I couldn’t even imagine.

I booked a gosiwon (a dormitory for exam students) near Seocho Station and planned to commute to the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office for a few days while working to corner Im Seong-jin.

The only problem was that I couldn’t figure out his cards.

If I could just know that, I might not only shake him up but also bring him down completely.

“Prosecutor Choi, what’s going on with this?”

The materials Park Seung-su handed me were the ones I had checked late last night while working overtime.

“Yes. The other accounts are shadow accounts, and when Han Dong Group sends money, it is withdrawn through homeless people to be used. However, this account is sending money to another place.”

“Do you know who the recipient is?”

“No. It seems like it’s someone behind Im Seong-jin, but I couldn’t verify it on my end.”

Park Seung-su smiled faintly.

“It’s a bribe. If it’s Im Seong-jin’s line, it’s probably flowing to the prosecutor general.”

“Are you talking about the Seoul Central District Prosecutor?”

“Yes. Im Seong-jin is from that guy’s line.”

I hadn’t known that.

I had suspected there was someone behind him due to the scale of the operation, but to think that he had the backing of the head of the highest prosecutor’s office, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor, was a surprise.

Things were more tangled than I had imagined.

As expected, one has to come to Seoul. Slowly, I began to see things that I couldn’t in the provinces.

“This could get bigger than we thought.”

Park Seung-su twisted the corner of his mouth into an interesting smile.

“Actually, if we don’t take Im Seong-jin down this time, things might get even more interesting.”

I understood exactly what he meant.

If this operation resulted in limbs being cut off, Im Seong-jin would surely try to lean on his higher-up, the prosecutor general.

If the prosecutor general accepts him and gives him a chance for a comeback, there might be a chance to climb through Im Seong-jin to take down the prosecutor general.

But if the prosecutor general abandons him, Im Seong-jin would collapse on his own, which would also be fine.

“It seems like the best move is to just keep him barely alive, like attaching a breathing tube.”

“Right. Don’t disclose this account, keep it hidden. If they think we didn’t notice, they’ll keep using the account.”

“Understood.”

***

“Hey, Yong-ho.”

I did some digging, and it turns out Im Seong-jin and Professor Jeong Jae-won have been in regular contact.

“Really?”

Yeah. It’s not like there’s a fixed schedule, but they definitely exchanged calls or texts at least once every one or two months. And additionally…

While I was preparing in Seoul, Shin Yong-ho wasn’t just sitting idly by in the provinces.

The connection between Im Seong-jin and Professor Jeong Jae-won that I had seen in the texts.

I thought it might be worth looking into, and sure enough, Im Seong-jin and Professor Jeong Jae-won had been in touch continuously since graduation.

That alone wouldn’t have been too surprising, but what came next was the shocking part.

While I was going through Im Seong-jin’s call logs, I noticed some new numbers popping up after the judicial exam questions had started being drafted. I dug into those numbers, and it turned out…

No way.

Among them, there were about eight instances where the call originated from a very remote area. So I went to visit all those places, and one of them was a restricted area.

What this meant was that the restricted area was where the judicial exam was being drafted.

In other words, it was confirmed that Im Seong-jin was in contact with someone involved in the drafting of the judicial exam.

It’s hard to believe, but if they were communicating in a place where electronic devices weren’t allowed, there’s no doubt about it.

It’s clear they were trying to leak the exam papers.

While the mysterious texts showed Im Seong-jin handing over the exam papers to Professor Jeong Jae-won, in this context, it was clear that Im Seong-jin was also trying to pass the exam papers to other individuals, not just Professor Jeong.

Otherwise, there’s no way we’d be detecting such circumstances now, even though we hadn’t told Professor Jeong Jae-won anything about this situation.

Are you going to blow this case too?

“No, for now, we’ll hold off. Let’s keep this between us. I won’t report it to the Inspection Department.”

Then what’s the plan?

“If this breaks now, the Ministry of Justice will handle it, so it won’t cause too much of a stir. They’ll probably try to quietly cover it up. That’s why we should wait until after the judicial exam is drafted and then blow it wide open.”

That way, the impact will be much greater.

Most importantly, it’s the last judicial exam, so there’s a lot of attention on it, and if we expose this then, it will create a huge scandal among students who didn’t do well on the exam.

Exposing a case at the right time is crucial.

The most important thing is the timing.

Got it. I’ll continue to gather more evidence. Since the phones used at the exam-drafting site are probably burner phones, I’ll also try to find out the real owners.

“Thanks.”

No, I should be the one thanking you.

“Alright, take care.”

Even though my ultimate goal was to take down the Prosecutor General, I couldn’t help but feel guilty towards Shin Yong-ho for not being able to take down Im Seong-jin with this case. But in the end, I had found even stronger evidence that could take him down.

If a sitting chief prosecutor is involved in judicial exam paper corruption, the entire foundation behind him would be questioned.

Who would have thought I’d have his life in my hands?

The situation was unfolding in such an intriguing way.

***

The day of the final showdown had arrived.

Today was the day.

Finally, it was D-day to strike the Economic Crime Investigation Department.

For over ten days, I had been working overtime with Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Seung-su, preparing evidence without skipping a single day, but starting today, regular prosecutors from the Inspection Department would also join in.

From today, the pressure would ease.

Of course, in just a few hours, Im Seong-jin would hear about this, but our pace would be faster than he expected.

And the Economic Crime Investigation Department would be destroyed.

“Did you sleep well?”

I didn’t notice when he arrived, but Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Seung-su tapped my shoulder and asked.

“Yes. Did you sleep well, sir?”

“No, I didn’t sleep well.”

He shrugged his shoulders and spoke.

“Im Seong-jin, that bastard. He’s always been so arrogant, but now that he’s going to have to face reality, I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited about seeing him finally struggle.”

I didn’t realize that Park Seung-su disliked Im Seong-jin.

Seeing my surprised expression, he smirked and lowered his voice to explain.

“That guy, he’s on the same team as Chief Prosecutor Baek Seong-tak.”

Baek Seong-tak was the Chief Prosecutor of the Inspection Department.

He was Park Seung-su’s immediate superior.

If the Economic Crime Investigation Department collapses, Im Seong-jin will falter, and naturally, the ripple effect will spread to his team.

If the shock is still fresh and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kim Seok-won gets promoted to High Prosecutor, Baek Seong-tak would be pushed out, and the position of Chief Prosecutor of the Inspection Department would naturally go to Park Seung-su, who is in Kim Seok-won’s line.

So, it makes sense that he’d be pleased.

He tapped my shoulder again and turned back toward the meeting room.

“Let’s go in.”

“Yes.”