Prosecutors investigating the alleged dissemination of fake news ahead of last year's presidential election have implicated main opposition Democratic Party(DP) Rep. Kim Byung-wook in the plot.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office suspects that Kim's aide, surnamed Choi, and the head of the leftist media outlet Repoact, surnamed Heo, schemed to issue a false report days before the election alleging that President Yoon Suk Yeol, then the opposition candidate, had colluded in an illegal loan scheme while he was a prosecutor in 2011.

In the report, Heo claimed that he had obtained an audio file of a conversation between the former head of the now-defunct central investigation bureau at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and a cousin of a financial broker implicated in the scandal.

The prosecution, which on Wednesday raided the office and home of the DP lawmaker's aide, stated in the warrant that the Kim and Choi had met with the broker's cousin and discussed the fake news scheme in December 2021.

Revealed on YouTube by Heo, the warrant said Choi delivered the audio file to a member of the DP's policy research panel, which was then sent to a former JTBC journalist who faces similar allegations in a separate case. Choi and the panel member later sent the file to Heo.

While admitting to having met with Lee, the DP lawmaker has denied any knowledge of the alleged audio transcript manipulation and false reporting.