A Seoul court began deliberations on Friday on the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant for Kim Man-bae, a key figure in the Daejang-dong land development scandal.

Kim arrived at the Seoul Central District Court on Friday morning without answering questions from reporters as he entered to attend the review, which may produce a ruling on the arrest warrant as early as Friday night.

Prosecutors requested the arrest warrant for Kim earlier on Tuesday on suspicions that, as the biggest shareholder of asset management company Hwacheon Daeyu, he hid checks worth 34 billion won, or nearly 27 million U.S. dollars, in profits linked to the development project between October 2021 and November 2022.

Prosecutors believe that Kim used the money to bribe key officials in return for favors related to the Daejang-dong land development project.

He is also suspected of ordering an interior business owner to discard his mobile phone containing evidence linked to the project in September 2021.

Last December, Kim allegedly asked an acquaintance to conceal a check valued at 14-point-two billion won ahead of an expected preservation of assets for forfeiture by the court.

Kim was previously arrested in 2021 and released about a year later on charges of breach of trust and embezzlement regarding the development project.