Superintendent Choi Runaway to Hong Kong

Mr. Choi Sung-Kyu, Superintendent of the Police who are allegedly involved in the scandals of Choi Kyu-Sun, the Future City Environment CEO, moved from Indonesia to Hong Kong via Singapore.

The Police revealed that “Mr. Choi left from Jakarta International Airport by Cathay Pacific flight CX714 at 7:12 P.M. on 18th with his first son in law to Hong Kong via Singapore. But it has not been confirmed whether he get off in Singapore.”

Therefore, the Police ordered 4 detectives who had left for Jakarta to move to Hong Kong and the officials in Hong Kong to check if Mr. Choi arrived in Hong Kong.

A related Police official said, “Chances are very high that Mr. Choi is trying to use Hong Kong and Singapore to go some other places since those cities are representative gateway cities in Asia. Seeing that Mr. Choi is traveling with his son in law, he might be heading to Australia where his son in law lives.”

`Investigation Team of the Grand National Party,` led by Rep. Um Ho-Sung, who are chasing Mr. Choi, decided to move to Hong Kong via Singapore, canceling its plan to visit the Indonesian Police and Immigration Office in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Special Investigation Bureau 2 of the Seoul Prosecution summoned Song Jae-Bin, CEO of Tiger Pools International (TPI), a larger stockholder of Sports ToTo, Co. Ltd., and grilled him whether 1.5 billion won that was given to Mr. Choi K.S. is a reward for the selection of TPI for the Sport Lottery business.

The Prosecution also investigated the related businesspersons whether Mr. Choi organized the transaction when Mr. Song sold his 200,000 TPI stocks through affiliated company APEX in April to 6 companies affiliated to POSCO.

However, Mr. Song asserted that “1.5 billion won was a reward for the stock transaction and for the organization of foreign investments.”

The Prosecution is also investigating when Mr. Choi and Mr. Song met at first, having a testimony that they had met at the end of 2000 before the selection of the Sports Lottery business.

The Prosecution also issued a summon for Kim Hui-Wan, former vice major of Seoul City, who is suspected to participated in the countermeasure meeting in terms of the Mr. Choi`s scandals.

The Prosecution is also investigating on the fact that Mr. Choi was solicited by a Mr. Park, president of a machine and concrete manufacturer, and borrowed 450 million won by check but has not paid back yet.

The Prosecution is also investigating on the rumor that Hong-Gul showed up with Mr. Choi when Mr. Choi was meeting with officials and businesspersons for solicitations.

Jin-Kyun Kil myzodan@donga.com · leon@donga.com