An opposition lawmaker claimed Thursday that 74 more employees of the state housing corporation are suspected of having purchased land for speculation, the latest in a series of allegations over a growing corruption scandal.

Rep. Kwak Sang-do of the main opposition People Power Party said an investigation revealed that 74 people, whose names matched those of Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) employees, made 64 land transactions in Gwangmyeong and Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, between early 2018 and last month.

The revelation follows allegations that more than a dozen LH employees used insider information to buy about 10 billion won ($8.88 million) worth of farmland in the two cities before they were designated by the central government as the sites of a major housing development project.

"We were unable to receive a list of LH employees' names and couldn't verify whether they were different people of the same name, but we used our own verification methods," Kwak said in a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency.

Kwak, who sits on a special party committee investigating the LH scandal, said the newly disclosed people should be investigated in addition to the 13 current and two former LH officials who are already under a police probe.

He said the 74 people were tied to transactions involving at least 1,000 square meters of farmland, which is the threshold for receiving certain types of compensation from the government in exchange for the land.

The investigation will be widened to look into transactions of smaller areas of land and employees of the land ministry, he added. (Yonhap)