The prosecution has sought a pretrial detention warrant for Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed political consultant, and former ruling People Power Party(PPP) lawmaker Kim Young-sun, as part of its probe into a 2022 political funding case.

The Changwon District Court said it received such a request from the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office on Monday afternoon, adding that it will begin related deliberations later this week.

Myung is accused of accepting multiple payments between August 2022 and December last year totaling approximately 90 million won, or about 65-thousand U.S. dollars, from former lawmaker Kim in violation of the Political Funds Act. 

Kim won a parliamentary seat in the Changwon Uichang constituency in a by-election in June 2022 and the prosecution suspects she paid Myung to help her get nominated as the ruling party candidate. 

Myung is suspected of using his personal connections with President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee to influence the nomination process.

He is also suspected of having local election candidates pay money in order to cover the costs of presidential opinion polls.