Prosecutors to seek int`l help in search for Daewoo head

The Central Investigation Headquarters of the Supreme Public Prosecutor¡¯s Office (SPPO) decided Wednesday to ask related overseas embassies to help locate former Daewoo Group chairman Kim Woo-Choong. The request is to be made through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The SPPO also plans to take legal steps to put the former head of the bankrupt conglomerate on the wanted list on suspicion that he was behind fabrication of financial records by Daewoo subsidiaries in order to obtain illegal loans.

In the process, the SPPO will ask for the Interpol¡¯s cooperation in locating Kim.

The prosecution is now investigating whether Daewoo Corporation was involved in the operation of overseas funds through about 10 Daewoo Group corporate bodies in European countries like France, Germany and Belgium. It has already been discovered that the British Financial Center (BFC), a secret organization Daewoo set up in London was involved in such activities.

The prosecution said the BFC functioned as a base for handling funds sent to it by Daewoo¡¯s overseas corporate bodies in the 1980s.

They also believe that Daewoo¡¯s branches in Germany and other countries might have been in charge of investments in East Europe and of managing the funds in 1990s, after the conglomerate began its full-fledged advance into Eastern Europe.