{"id":14411,"date":"2026-07-23T08:17:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14411"},"modified":"2026-07-23T08:17:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:17:42","slug":"seoul-mayor-fined-6600-in-poll-payment-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14411","title":{"rendered":"Seoul mayor fined $6,600 in poll-payment case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/2671784755148\/2026\/upi_com\/8b88e3d1c9f6bc6fa24a966cfab9244e\/v1.5\/Seoul-mayor-fined-6600-in-poll-payment-case.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks to reporters outside the Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, 22 July 2026, after the court sentenced Oh to a 10 million-won (USD 6,600) fine for accepting illegal political funds in connection with opinion poll results he obtained ahead of the 2021 mayoral by-election. Photo by YONHAP \/ EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 22 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon was fined 10 million won ($6,600) Wednesday after a court found him guilty of having a political supporter pay for opinion polls he commissioned before the 2021 mayoral by-election.<\/p>\n<p>Oh would lose his position as mayor if the sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court. He rejected the ruling and said he would appeal immediately.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Seoul Central District Court also ordered Oh to forfeit 21 million won ($13,900).<\/p>\n<p>Former Seoul Vice Mayor for Political Affairs Kang Chul-won, who was indicted with Oh, was fined 3 million won ($2,000). Businessman and political supporter Kim Han-jung was fined 5 million won ($3,300).<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors accused Oh of receiving the results of 10 private opinion polls from political broker Myung Tae-kyun before the April 7, 2021, Seoul mayoral by-election.<\/p>\n<p>They alleged that Oh instructed Kang, then his chief of staff, to have Kim pay about 33 million won ($21,900) in polling costs.<\/p>\n<p>The court found Oh guilty of arranging payment of 21 million won for five polls, including three that were not intended for publication and two that were released publicly.\n<\/p>\n<p>The court said Oh complained when poll results were unfavorable and sought to delay their release to minimize their negative effect.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The commissioning and payment of the polls were also connected to an effort to publish and report candidate-commissioned opinion polls prohibited under the Public Official Election Act,&#8221; the court said. &#8220;The nature of the offense is serious.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The court said Oh had previously served as Seoul mayor and should have been familiar with the purpose and requirements of the Political Funds Act.<\/p>\n<p>It also said he led the offense but repeatedly attempted to avoid responsibility during the trial by presenting arguments the court found difficult to accept.<\/p>\n<p>Oh disputed the ruling after leaving the courthouse.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The court found five opinion polls unlawful today, but I cannot accept that conclusion,&#8221; Oh told reporters. &#8220;The correct decision would have been to find me not guilty on every count.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oh said the conviction was based on Myung&#8217;s statements and circumstantial evidence rather than direct evidence.<\/p>\n<p>His legal team said in a statement that it regretted the court&#8217;s decision to convict Oh without objective evidence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is difficult to accept a conclusion reached by piecing together some of Myung&#8217;s exaggerated statements and various circumstances,&#8221; the statement said.\n<\/p>\n<p>The defense said it would file an immediate appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The case is governed by an expedited trial provision requiring a first-trial ruling within six months of indictment and appellate and Supreme Court rulings within three months of the preceding decision.<\/p>\n<p>A final Supreme Court ruling is expected by January at the latest.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260722010008156\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260722010008156<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks to reporters outside the Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, 22 July 2026, after the court sentenced Oh to a 10 million-won (USD 6,600) fine for accepting illegal political funds in connection with opinion poll results he obtained ahead of the 2021 mayoral by-election. Photo by YONHAP \/ EPA&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/2671784755148\/2026\/1\/8b88e3d1c9f6bc6fa24a966cfab9244e\/v1.5\/Seoul-mayor-fined-6600-in-poll-payment-case.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}