A Changwon court has acquitted power broker Myung Tae-kyun and former People Power Party(PPP) Rep. Kim Young-sun on bribery charges linked to Kim's candidacy in the 2022 local and 2024 general elections.

The Changwon District Court on Thursday found Myung and Kim not guilty of violating the Political Funds Act.

The court did not acknowledge the money exchanged between the two defendants as political funds as it recognized that it was either wage payment for services rendered by Myung as a senior aide to Kim or repayment of debt.

Myung, however, was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for one year, for hiding evidence regarding an instruction he gave to his brother-in-law to conceal his three mobile phones and USB flash drive during the investigation.
 
The prosecution had requested a five-year sentence for both Myung and Kim, and an additional year for Myung on the evidence concealment charge.