Grills on Where the Bribe Went

Special Prosecutor Cha Jeong-Il confiscated two computer hard disks, which have records related with the sign-in lists of fund B that amounts to 3.8 billion won raised by Kim Young-Joon (42), the owner of Daeyang Mutual Trust Bank, to purchase the convertible bonds of SamaeIndus, the affiliated corporation of the G&G group.

If the Special Prosecution discloses the list of implicated persons and the details of lobbying activities, it is likely to create a great stir in the political and government circles.

The Special Prosecution dispatched an investigation team to Mr. Kim`s hideout, a villa in Chongdam-dong, Seoul, and confiscated the hard disks.

While retaining the account documents and tracing the money flow, the Special Prosecution is trying to sort out the list of members connected to fund B and whether the 15.4 billion won raised by manipulating the market was used for the purpose of lobbying activities.

The Special Prosecution conducted a cross examination by bringing Mr. Kim face to face with Mr. Lee and interrogating them on conspiring with each other to manipulate the stock market, and whether they misappropriated Interpion stocks, another affiliated corporation of Mr. Lee. The Prosecution will request an arrest warrant for Mr. Kim for the charge of violating security transaction laws today.

In addition, the Special Prosecution is investigating the connections between Kim Hyung-Yoon, former Economic Director of the National Intelligence Service who is suspected to have provided the information about the treasure ship project of SamaeIndus and Mr. Lee and his lobbyist Hur Ok-Seok.

Once the documents requested from the Public Prosecution arrives, the Special Prosecution will send the investigation letters to 7-8 suspicious prosecutors from about 10 prosecutors who had met with Mr. Shin Seung-Hwan, the brother of former Prosecutor General Shin Seung-Nam.

myzodan@donga.com