Police Clarify Choi Jong Hoon’s Drunk Driving Case Was Not Intentionally Covered Up

On April 18, the Intellectual Crime Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency stated that they found no evidence of Choi Jong Hoon’s drunk driving incident from 2016 being intentionally blocked from being covered by the press.

Choi Jong Hoon previously admitted to offering a bribe to a police officer by telling him, “I’ll give you 2 million won (approximately $1,762), so let this slide,” when he was caught drunk driving. However, the new update from the police indicates that the drunk driving incident was not deliberately covered up and that the police officer presumably did not accept the bribe.

The police found that the police station in charge of the case (Seoul Yongsan Police Station) had informed the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency about the fact that Choi Jong Hoon was a celebrity and was caught drunk driving. This was found through investigation records and records in a cellphone belonging to the police officer in charge of the case at the time.

In addition, the police looked into the bank account records of the participants of the group chatroom with Choi Jong Hoon, as well as those of all officers at the Yongsan Police Station, and they found no evidence of corrupt connections to Senior Superintendent Yoon, former Yuri Holdings CEO Yoo In Suk, or other police officers in command of investigations.

Choi Jong Hoon will be forwarded to the prosecution on April 19 on charges of showing  the intention to bribe a police officer. He was previously booked on these charges last month.

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