2026.10.16. The Fair Economy — Police referred four people, including former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min and Lee In-jae, president of Incheon National University, to the prosecution on charges of obstruction of business over suspicions that his daughter, Yoo Dam, a professor at Incheon National University, received preferential treatment in her hiring.
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 16th that it had referred them without detention on obstruction of business charges.
Among the four referred, President Lee and one Incheon National University professor were additionally charged with violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, but no evidence of bribery was found.
Yoo Seung-min and the others are accused of having obstructed the hiring process when Professor Yoo was appointed to the Department of International Trade at Incheon National University in the second semester of last year.
Police received a complaint in November last year and investigated 23 accused individuals, later adding three more, including Yoo. Of the 26 investigated, only four were referred, and the remaining 22 were not. Yoo Dam was not charged and only underwent a written investigation. A police official said they conducted 39 rounds of questioning of 29 people and four searches and seizures.
Incheon National University has previously denied the allegations, saying the screening process at the time was fair.
The referred case will be transferred to the Incheon Public Prosecutors' Office, where prosecutors are expected to review whether to file charges.
The allegations first surfaced in October of last year, when Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jin Seon-mi raised the issue during a National Assembly audit session. At the time, Jin argued, "There has been a lot of objection to the fact that 31-year-old Professor Yoo Dam was appointed to the Department of International Trade at Incheon National University," adding, "Her paper quality score was 18.6, ranking around 16th from the bottom, yet she received perfect marks in academic background, career experience and paper quantity, passing the first-round screening in 2nd place overall."
She added, "I looked up all the professors hired in the Department of Trade, and not one had such a lack of experience," and stated, "Professor Yoo has no study abroad or overseas experience and did nothing at a company, yet she received full marks for experience while other applicants received low scores."
Former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min appeared before police as a suspect on July 3 and was questioned for about 11 hours. At the time, he was under investigation without detention, and police reportedly focused on whether he intervened in his daughter's professor appointment process. Earlier, in a media interview, Yoo strongly criticized the investigation, saying, "I'm a jobless politician with no position or power—how could I exert external pressure?" and "With the police, the Board of Audit and Inspection, and the Ministry of Education all digging into this, I guess this is what a dusting-off investigation by the Lee Jae-myeong government looks like."
The complainants also filed a complaint alleging that Incheon National University failed to properly preserve hiring-related documents that should be permanently preserved under its 'Guidelines for New Appointment of Full-Time Faculty,' violating the Act on Management of Public Records. Police investigated this aspect as well, but at the final referral stage, only charges of obstruction of business and violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act were applied.
The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act prohibits improper solicitations to or from public officials and can apply to university professor hiring processes. In this case, Incheon National University President Lee In-jae and one professor were additionally charged with violating the act. However, police found no evidence of bribery. Since the act can punish improper solicitation regardless of whether money or valuables changed hands, whether the charges can stand without bribery is expected to be a key issue.
This is not the first time obstruction of business charges have been applied in university professor hiring. The crime is established when someone obstructs another's work through deception or force, and it can apply when improper interference in the professor screening process disrupts normal appointment procedures.
In this case, Yoo Seung-min and others are accused of obstructing the university's hiring process during Yoo Dam's recruitment as a professor in the Department of International Trade at Incheon National University. The police have not disclosed the specific actions Yoo Seung-min took to secure his daughter's appointment, but explained that "there are allegations of obstructing Incheon National University's work in the professor hiring process."
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