Employees of Yeongju Nonghyup in North Gyeongsang collectively made small donations to their constituency lawmaker, Rep. Lim Jong-deuk of the People Power Party (Yeongju·Yeongyang·Bonghwa), and it has been confirmed that the details were delivered to Rep. Lim. Yeongju Nonghyup explained that it only acted on behalf of individual employee donations, but with the amount alone nearing 5 million won, criticism has arisen that this effectively constituted ‘split donations’ of political funds to Rep. Lim.

According to reporting by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 1st, Yeongju Nonghyup sent the office of Rep. Lim Jong-deuk a document titled ‘Notice of Donor List’ in January, containing the names of employees who donated political funds. The list drawn up by Yeongju Nonghyup shows that on December 31 last year, 52 Yeongju Nonghyup employees donated to Rep. Lim all at once, up to 100,000 won per person, totaling 4.97 million won.

Yeongju Nonghyup stated that it only informed employees that donations to a National Assembly member are eligible for income tax deductions, and that there is no problem because the contributions were voluntary. A Yeongju Nonghyup official said, “Individual employees requested to make donations, so we collected and processed them for the convenience of employees,” and added, “We did not tell anyone to donate to a particular lawmaker.” Yeongju Nonghyup said it received the donation amounts directly in cash from employees, but some employees said they thought the sums were deducted from their pay, and recollections differed about how the donations were made.

The office of Rep. Lim also knew about the donations by Yeongju Nonghyup employees and said it was their side that asked for the list to be compiled. Rep. Lim said, “Most were small sums sent by people I personally know at Yeongju Nonghyup.”

It is problematic for a corporation to act as an agent for political donations in the names of individual employees and to compile and deliver the list itself. The Political Funds Act specifies that one may not improperly broker donations by using business, employment, or other relationships. In such cases, both the intermediary and the recipient are subject to punishment. The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation also has an internal code of conduct for officers and employees that includes the clause ‘Personal political views must not be misunderstood as the position of Nonghyup.’ One employee whose name appeared on this donor list told the reporter by phone, “The company contacted me to ask whether I was willing to donate to the lawmaker,” and added, “I donated for a year-end income tax deduction, but if the company had not contacted me, I would not have donated.” A legal professional said, “Since the law prohibits corporate group-fund donations, there is room to view this as having been involved in inducing group funds to be donated by asking individuals for their intent as a way to circumvent the ban.”

During this period, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was conducting a special audit of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and the Nonghyup Foundation. It was also when revisions to the Agricultural Cooperatives Act (Nonghyup Act) were under discussion, including unifying the selection of local cooperative heads into a direct vote by members. The bill passed the National Assembly plenary session in February, but a second reform package that includes a plan for the direct election of the federation president is still under discussion. In April, the Yeongju·Yeongyang·Bonghwa Cooperative Operations Council invited Rep. Lim to deliver a petition requesting reconsideration of the Nonghyup Act revisions, and a separate agricultural policy roundtable was held at Yeongju Nonghyup. Nam Jeong-sun, head of Yeongju Nonghyup, said, “The policy roundtable is not related to these donations.”

Controversies over political donations from local-level Nonghyup cooperatives to members of the National Assembly are not new. In 2010, it was revealed that the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation forced political donations to lawmakers, and in 2016 an employee who had made others donate received a suspended sentence of eight months in prison with two years of probation. In 2024, it also emerged that Seoul Gangdong Nonghyup donated a total of 5.4 million won, 100,000 won per person in the names of employees, to former People Power Party lawmaker Jeon Ju-hye, and the cooperative head came under investigation.