Special inspector Lee Seok-su, who had been tasked with investigating a scandal-marred senior presidential aide, offered to resign Monday amid a widening probe into his alleged information leak. 

Lee, part of a probe involving civil affairs presidential secretary Woo Byung-woo, is suspected of exposing details of the investigation into Woo’s case to a local media outlet through a messaging app. Under law, a special inspector can face a jail term of up to five years for leaking information about an ongoing probe.

“I concluded that there is nothing more I can do as a special inspector in a situation where documents related to the ongoing probe were searched for and seized,” he told a local media outlet after tendering his resignation.

The resignation came only a week after he vowed not to step down from his post over the allegations.

Earlier in the day, the special task force in charge of investigating Woo’s alleged corruption charges and Lee’s alleged info leak raided eight locations, including Lee’s office in central Seoul. It seized the cellphones of Lee and an unspecified reporter from local broadcaster MBC.

Led by Yoon Gap-geun, chief of the Daegu High Prosecutors’ Office, the special task force also stormed Woo’s family-owned company Jeonggang in southern Seoul, as well as an office of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in central Seoul, in connection with embezzlement and influence-peddling allegations.

Woo has been under investigation for allegedly misappropriating funds from the company to lease a luxury sedan and pay for his and his family members’ phone bills. He is also accused of using his position to help his son get assigned to a relatively easy post as a policeman during the military service.

The prosecution also raided the nation’s largest game-maker Nexon, which is suspected of buying real estate owned by Woo’s family in southern Seoul, allegedly at a rate much higher than market price, in 2011. The company resold it one year and four months later, upon the withdrawal of its plan to build its new headquarters in Seoul. Woo has flatly denied all accusations.

The former inspector Lee asked the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to open a formal probe into his alleged charges of embezzlement and abuse of power last month.

Over the weekend, a special task force was brought in to question Yoon Young-dae, the head of nonprofit organization Spec Watch Korea, who had filed a complaint against Woo.

The civic group raised suspicions that Woo evaded taxes when he inherited shares from a golf company and that he turned a blind eye to former prosecutor Jin Kyung-jun’s dubious stock transactions.

Prosecutors additionally took statements from the head of a right-wing and Catholic organization, also surnamed Lee, who had filed a complaint against ex-special inspector Lee.

By Ock Hyun-ju

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)