A senior prosecutor, who indicted a former vice justice minister over a sex-for-favor scandal, has denied a media report that suspected Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl’s possible involvement in the scandal. 

Yeo Hwan-seop, the head of the Daegu District Prosecutor’s Office, made the dismissal while speaking before the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Friday. 

The prosecutor said that when he was leading an investigation of former justice vice minister Kim Hak-ui in 2013, he read all the related documents and criminal records regarding the businessman who allegedly offered cash and sexual services to Kim, but that the name of the incumbent top prosecutor was not there. 

Yeo admitted there was a rumor at the time that the prosecutor-general met with the businessman, Yoon Jung-cheon. However, the prosecutor said when he interrogated the businessman over the suspicion, he denied any offering of sexual or financial bribes to the prosecutor general. 

His testimonies came after the local magazine, Hankyoreh 21, said the prosecutor general had years ago been invited to a countryside villa notorious for sex parties hosted by Yoon Jung-cheon. Former vice justice minister Kim was indicted of receiving bribes worth about 130 million won and sexual favors from the businessman between 2007 and 2008.