Rep. Lee Sang-Hee Will Be Summoned Next Week

The Seoul District Prosecution, which has been investigating the case of Pass 21, will summon Rep. Lee Sang-Hee of the Grand National Party, who is suspected to have received money for tour from Pass 21.

According to the Prosecution, Rep. Lee received 2,000 dollars from a Pass 21 person while he was participating in the business fair in the U.S. Silicon Valley in November 2000.

The Prosecution will also investigate through letters the individuals in political and government circles who are suspected to have contacted former lawmaker Kim Hyun-Kyu, the supervisor of Pass 21, or Mr. Yoon Tae-Sik and to help their business.

The Prosecution said, however, that "It would not be appropriate to summon everyone who is suspected to be involved in the case since their violation of the law has not been proved yet." The Prosecution disclosed that Kim Byung-Ryol, former CEO of the Seoul Economic Daily who was summoned on the 15th, held 90,000 Pass 21 stocks, sold 59,000 stocks later, and mortgaged off the rest of the stocks as security to a trust bank.

The Prosecution learned that the sales price of the stocks was 6.4 billion won and traced the usage of the money on mortgage that Mr. Kim borrowed from the trust bank.

Mr. Kim testified, "I received stocks from Mr. Yoon for office rental and spent the money from sales to make interest payments for the loan that my wife borrowed for her wedding business."

The Prosecution also announced that it has not found any evidence that he illegally exercised his influence for the publication of the articles related with Pass 21 and that there was no evidence that he sold his stocks at a higher price by pressuring security corporations.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com