Prosecutorial probe should break fence set by Pres. Park

The special investigation unit at the prosecution filed an arrest warrant for Choi Soon-sil for the charges of abuse of power and attempted fraud on Wednesday. Prosecutors claim that Choi colluded with Ahn Jong-beom, senior presidential secretary for policy coordination, to rip conglomerates off money to found the Mir Foundation and K-Sports Foundation. The prosecution judged that the fact The Blue K, Choi’s own private company, attempted to receive a total of 700 million won (612,000 dollars) in research grants by proposing two proposals to the K-Sports Foundation despite its lack of capabilities constituted an attempted fraud. Prosecutors are set to step up investigation after first arresting Choi for these charges.

Even after prosecutors urgently arrested Choi, fresh suspicions over Choi are being raised one after another. Suspicion has been raised that The Blue K sought to deprive a private construction company, which was picked in December last year by the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee as contractor for the event’s opening and closing ceremonies, of the projects by forming an alliance with a Swiss company. In the course of that, Ahn, and former culture vice minister Kim Jong allegedly played a supporting role, while former Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok wielded pressure. Considering that The Blue K, which was less than one year old since establishment, attempted to win a project to construct Pyeongchang Olympic facilities worth 150 billion won (131 million dollars) on the backing of President Park Geun-hye, even the Olympic event could have been polluted by Choi.

It has been also revealed that Samsung signed a 2.8 million-euro (310 U.S. dollars) contract with Kore Sports, a German sports consulting firm that is owned by Choi and her daughter, in September and October last year. In Germany Choi’s daughter is the only person who trained horseback riding by using a horse worth more than 1 billion won (870,000 dollars). Samsung said it provided support to nurture promising young jockeys as the main sponsor of the Korea Equestrian Federation, but whether the conglomerate paid 3.5 billion won (3 million dollars) to the sports consulting company even after donating 20.4 billion won (1.7 million dollars) to the two foundations was voluntary or a result of pressure by Choi should be determined.

The core issue in the Choi Soon-sil gate is unchecked manipulation of state affairs as President Park’s secretive aide. Prosecutors are tightlipped about investigation of President Park, who was the power source behind Choi in manipulating state affairs. Some critics even sarcastically say that it was a "joint government of Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil," and if prosecutorial investigation only stays within, and fails to break, the fence placed by Park herself, the public will never forgive the prosecution.