Prosecutors on Monday raided the Seocho Police Station, which was looking into the death of an investigator found dead Sunday amid a power abuse scandal. They seized his cellphone and other belongings.

The investigator worked for Baek Won-woo, a former presidential secretary who is now under suspicion of power abuse. Baek had allegedly run an independent team to instigate a probe into an incumbent Ulsan mayor running for reelection in 2018. A longtime friend of President Moon Jae-in won that election.

The presidential office has denied reports that an extralegal inspection team had been formed to instigate the probe.

“The reports that Baek was running a separate inspection team or operations ungoverned by the law aren’t true. We hope to find out what pushed him to make a drastic choice (death),” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said.

The police are looking into the investigator’s death that happened just hours before he was scheduled to appear before prosecutors for questioning about the power abuse suspicions. He left a letter that included a message to Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl: “I apologize to you. I hope you take care of my family.”

“That shouldn’t have happened. We think that misunderstandings and conjectures regarding the work he had done might have cornered him,” Ko said.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)