Suspicion of Kickback with Meddling of Governmental Projects

It is known on April 17 that personal secretary of CEO of Future City Environment Choi Kyu-Sun, Cheon Ho-Young, stated in the prosecution, `Mr Choi called CEO of Tiger Pools International (TPI) Song Jae-Bin in December 2000, and assured him not to worry as all was going well for screening board members for athletic lottery operator were getting out the boarding house.`

In addition Mr. Cheon confirmed to state, `Mr. Song gave money and stock to Mr. Choi after Mr. Song was selected as the operator of athletic lottery project.`

Mr. Choi, who is allegedly involved in various influence meddling scandals using the background of the third son of the president Kim Dae-Jung, Hong-Gul, and CEO of TPI Mr. Song, who is a majority stock holder of Sports Toto Inco. that issues the athletic lottery ticket `Sports TOTO`, claimed so far that they have known each other only from April last year and denied that no kickbacks of any kind whatsoever has taken place between the two.

Additionally, it is known on April 17 that Mr. Choi had called the chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Shin Gun in the morning of April 11 to escape his desperate position. According to the NIS, Mr. Choi had at that time discussed measures, in face of the appearance to the prosecution office, with seven to eight associates including director of the special investigating division of the National Police Agency (NPA) Choi Sung-Kyu and former deputy Seoul mayor for political affairs Kim Hee-Wan, and called NIS chief Shin to ask for help.

The NIS side said, `But Chief Shin warned him not to call various places but to act on just manner and that the issue was not a matter to be discussed with the chief of NIS.`

The NIS added, `Shin received the phone as he decided that he needed to know what Mr. Choi, as a troublemaker in relation to a son of the president, was up to.`

According the NIS source, Shin has known Mr. Choi in late 1997 when Mr. Choi was a secretary of the president-elected and Shin was a member of take-over party for the presidency, but has rarely met him ever since.

Previously, the prosecution announced that Mr. Choi was emergency arrested in the afternoon of April 16 in charges of receiving money from construction companies with requests for interfering with the permits of public housing redevelopment project and governmental projects.

The prosecution also searched two residential places including Mr.Choi`s house in Apkujeong-Dong Kangnam-Gu and three offices including Future City Environment in Yeoksam-Dong, and seized computer diskettes and accounting documents.

The prosecution is expected to issue an arrest warrant of Mr. Choi on April 18.

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