Suspicion on Concealment of High-Ranking Staff Involvement

The fact that the state owned Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KCGF) was swindled out of about 4 billion won by a special group of impostors on accommodation bills in 1999 was revealed recently.

There is also a suspicion that, although a high-ranking official of KCGF was suspected for his involvement in KCGF`s guarantee process on the impostor group, KCGF concealed this case when they asked the prosecution to investigate in September.

Lee Jong-Sung, the Executive Director of KCGF, recently announced that, `` In the internal cyber inspection of the last year, KCGF exposed 20 impostors who over-issued accommodation bills, and charged and requested for the investigation with the Seoul District Public Prosecutor`s Office last September.`` Besides this, the Board of Audit and Inspection carried a special inspection on KCGF, and requested investigation on the impostors, including Mr. S, the owner of a fisheries wholesale company that is actually a bill-drawing company, to Yeojoo District Prosecutor`s Office.

The impostors established some 10 marine product distribution companies, including N and H fish Co., and falsely filed documents without actual business. Then, they received the loan guarantee and bill insurance of KCGF, discounted them from financial companies, and embezzled it. They dented more than 4 billion won to KCGF.

Mr. S., the major criminal suspect of this case, and Mr. Oh, a former director of KCGF Kwangju branch who was deeply involved in the guarantee process, absconded before the investigation started.

In the internal inspection, KCGF ensured staffs` statements that a high-ranking official Mr. S put pressure on the process of guarantee or bill insurance of the marine product distribution companies, including the chief impostor S`s N, H, and another H companies.

Regarding to the inspection, the labor union of KCGF publicly asked that, ``In conducting this case, the responsible high-ranking major figures should not escape in the expense of minor figures. The board should publicly reveal the result of the special inspection, which was conducted by a former inspector Kim.`` through the bulletin board of the company in last July.

A former inspector Kim, who conducted the internal inspection and retired in July, said, ``I, as a retired person, do not want to say anything about the case under the investigation of prosecution.``

Mr. Lee, the Executive Director of KCGF, said, ``The case of a board member S was not included in our investigation request to prosecution because it had not been confirmed.``

Park Rae-Jeong ecopark@donga.com