39.7 Billion Won to Be Returned by PPP After Yoon Suk-yeol's Suspended Sentence in Appeals Trial

Attention is focusing on whether the return process will begin for the 39.7 billion won (approx. $28 million) in election costs that the People Power Party (PPP) received for the 20th presidential election, after former President Yoon Suk-yeol was sentenced to a prison term carrying election-invalidating consequences in the second trial of his election law violation case on Friday. The Seoul High Court's Criminal Appeals Division 2-1 (Judges Baek Seung-yeop, Hwang Seung-tae, and Kim Young-hyun) on the 4th handed down a sentence of one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years — the same as in the first trial — against the former president, who had been indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act.

Under the election law, a candidate elected to office who is fined 1 million won or more for an election crime is subject to having their election invalidated. In a presidential election, once an election-invalidating sentence is finalized, the responsibility for returning election subsidies falls not on the individual candidate but on the recommending political party.

For the 20th presidential election, the PPP received a total of 39.7 billion won from the National Election Commission — 39.4 billion won in election subsidies plus 300 million won in deposit money.

Upon receipt of the court ruling, the NEC will issue an official notice ordering the return of the funds within 30 days. If the return is not made by 10 days before the deadline, a second return order will be issued. If the funds are still not returned, the NEC will entrust collection to the competent tax office through delinquent national tax procedures; in the case of a presidential election, the National Tax Service would initiate collection.

"This is the first time election costs from a presidential election will have to be returned," said an NEC official. "Given that it was a nationwide election, this will be the largest return in history." If the verdict is finalized at the Supreme Court, the recovery of the 39.7 billion won will proceed; should the PPP fail to return the funds, the NEC's two return orders followed by National Tax Service collection procedures would take place in sequence.