The prosecution has secured phones used by Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed political consultant who is a key figure in a high-profile scandal involving President Yoon Suk Yeol and the first lady. 

Myung on Thursday voluntarily submitted three phones and a memory stick to a probe team at the Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office.

Myung reportedly used one of the phones from September 2019 to November last year, which coincides with the presidential and local elections, as well as the by-election in 2022 when former People Power Party(PPP) lawmaker Kim Young-sun won a parliamentary seat. 

Myung is suspected of conducting “customized” opinion polls for Yoon free of charge during his presidential campaign in 2022 and using his personal connections with the president and first lady Kim Keon-hee to influence the PPP nomination process for the by-election. 

Myung is accused of accepting multiple payments from Kim after she won in the by-election.