Mr. Lee, Soo-Man Secretly Keeps Big Sum of Money

The Seoul District Prosecutor Office homicide department, which is investigating the entertainment world corruption, said on the 18th that it apprehended a circumstance that the heavy stockholder of the SM Entertainment Lee, Soo-Man (50) lobbied against broadcasting PD’s using large sum of cash that he was keeping in his secret office and safe, and it was investigating the case.

A Prosecute official said, “We confirmed that Mr. Lee opened a secret office near the SM office and was keeping cash and secret documents in a safe in that office, and once the investigation was started, he let the president of SM Kim, Gyung-Wook (restraint) to give them into his high school classmate.”

The Prosecute is confirming the source of cash and its consumption, and looking for Mr. Lee’s high school classmate, who disappeared with the documents in the safe.

The Prosecute is assuming that Mr. Lee is coming back from the USA since he submitted a designation of counsel application, so they are discussing a detailed schedule.

The Prosecute also announced that it acquired information that some managers of singers did drugs, so it was investigating the case in cooperation with the drug investigation department, and it did drug reaction test against some managers who were examined.

The Prosecute said that it did seizure and search against 30 some entertainment project companies, and a high ranking broadcasting PD, who stayed in America, sent a medical certificate issued by a local hospital after he received a summon notice from the Prosecute.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com