Witness: 'Vice chairman ordered loan scandal cover-up'

In relation to the Hanvit illegal loan scandal, former audit and inspection division head Do Jong-Tae, who is under arrest, revealed that high level bank officials had pressured him to cover up the Kwanak branch incident.

On Wednesday, Do Jong-Tae testified as a witness at the inspection of the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service conducted by the National Assembly. He stated that when he was in statutory auditor Lee Chok-Yub's office Jan. 19, vice chairman Lee called the auditor to persuade him to keep the incident quiet, and the auditor in turn ordered Do to take the necessary action.

Do Jong-Tae revealed this fact at the investigation conducted by the Prosecution in September. During a cross-examination of auditor Lee and vice chairman Lee, both remarked that they did not recall any such incident, showing that they admitted their wrongdoings to a point.

However, when a previous announcement was made on this case, there was no mention of the two officers, and only Do Jong-Tae and former Kwanak branch manager Shin Chang-Seob were arrested.

In relation to this matter, GNP lawmaker Chung Hyung-Keun asserted that the Prosecution had deliberately scaled down the investigation, considering Do's testimony was excluded during the indictment process despite having been recorded by the Prosecution.

However, vice chairman Lee Soo-Kil and auditor Lee Chok-Yeob, who were witnesses during the National Assembly inspection, denied Do¡¯s allegations and stated that the testimony was completely off base.

On the other hand, at the inspection of the NTO by the finance and economics committee, GNP lawmaker Ahn Taek-Soo pointed out that 104,668 accounts were tracked until June and that 34,426 of these traces were requested by the tax office. He remarked that the tracking of accounts was misused for tax inspection purposes.

At the inspection of the National Parks Administration by the environment and labor committee, United Liberal Democrats lawmaker Chung Woo-Taik stated that the water in Mt. Kaeryong and Mt. Sokri National Parks had fallen to grade 5 due to the fact that 58% of lodging facilities and restaurants did not have waste water treatment systems.

Song In-Soo issong@donga.com