Sports ToTo Had Received Evaluation of `Disqualified`

The Sports Toto Co., (previously Tiger Pools Korea) the provider of a sports lottery `Sports Toto,` was selected as the provider even though the Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation (SOSPF) had evaluated the company as `disqualified.` in its evaluation on the preferred negotiators.

According to the `General Evaluation Report on the Preferred negotiators,` which was composed in January 2001 by the SOSPF, the Sports Toto Co. has problems in all 6 items that are necessary for doing a lottery business.

In the report, the working officials of the SOSPF presented 6 negative opinions on the Sports Toto`s business and technical plans, such as △technical incongruency of the issuing system, including the function of the issuing machine △unverified system integration solution △introduction of an inappropriate source code for the business.

The SOSPF`s decision repelled the working officials, and after the report was leaked, some officials received disadvantages in their personnel appointments.

A certain Chun, who had been worked for a secretary of C, a advisor to the core of the ruling group, insisted that A, a relative of a high ranking official, politician B, and C have been keeping the companies` stocks under 5 other people`s names. And the Tiger Pools International, a large stockholder of the Sports Toto Co., admitted that the 5 people`s names are actually in its stockholders` list.

Chun argued that, “Song Jae-Bin, President of the Tiger Pools Co., gave shares to A,B, and C in return to their help in obtaining the lottery business license. A has been keeping the shares under the names of Park, Kim, and Yoo, and B and C have been holding the stocks under the names of B`s driver and a female staff of C`s company,” in a message posted on the Web page of the Citizen`s Coalition for Economic Justice on March 28th.

Responding to this, an official of the Tiger Pools International said, “The five people might have bought the stocks according to C`s recommendation. But Song never provided shares in relation to the license.”

Chun was arrested on the suspicion the he had threatened to reveal the corruption case unless the company paid 600 million won at Bundang Police Station, Sungnam City, Kyungki. However, Chun denied the charge that, “ I never attempted such an act.”

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com · Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com