Bosung Group Bribed Politicians with Billions of Won

It has become known that the prosecution has intentionally withheld pieces of concrete evidence from the court. In prosecuting a bribery scandal involving Nara Financing, Kim Ho-jun the former chairman of Nara`s mother company Bosung, and politicians, the DA`s office had obtained statements and books detailing the bribes handed over to politicians. Nonetheless, the DA`s office has never submitted them to the court.

Rep. Hong Jun-pyo of Grand National Party held a press conference on Sunday morning and said that the DA`s office had not submitted the statement of Mr. Choi, who were CFO of LAD, Inc., an affiliate of Bosung Group. According to Mr. Hong, Choi, who had managed all the slush funds of former chairman, stated before the prosecution that he had given 1.5 billion won(approximately $1.2 million) and 1 billion won to two powerful congressmen of New Millennium Democratic Party (NMP), and 200 million won and 50 million won to two top aids of NMP`s presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun.

In support of his claims, Rep. Hong disclosed 12 pages of the statement Choi had made with the Central Investigation Division of the Highest Public Prosecutors` Office on June 18th.

Rep. Hong said, "Choi had recorded all of dated transactions of Bosung Group`s slush fund, using the MS Excel, in 10 pages. Later, the central division obtained them, but did not submit them to the court to cover up the case. It`s a criminal act punishable under the law."

He contended, "The person, who provided us with the copy of the statement, had read the transaction record. According to the information provided by our source, the transactions on the report amount to 2.3 billion won."

According the statement of Choi made on June 18th, which in turn was released yesterday, the prosecutor asked, "How much was the amount of the slush fund you [Choi] have managed for Kim Ho-jun [former chairman of Bosung]?" in response, Choi said, "I am not sure, but I can answer your question when I see the invoice of transactions now in the custody of the prosecution."

Then, the prosecutor showed him a copy of the invoice attached to the Apr. 20th investigation report, and Choi answered, "Yes. That`s correct."

Rep. Hong argued, “Originally, the last page number was 2101 with stamp on it. In addition, the serial numbers on 12 pages of the statement were rewritten. All the facts point to the intentional deletion of 21 pates by the prosecution."

In response, a high-ranking official of the Attorney General`s Office said, "The pages deleted have nothing to do with the case itself. It is the general practice and proper action among prosecutors to delete the portions not related to prosecution of the case."

He added, "Choi did not make any statement, indicating he had given any money to NMP members. Furthermore, we have no record supporting the allegation."

The NMP members suspected of receiving the kickbacks said, "We do not know of any person who has worked or work for Nara Financing. It`s baloney! If some press and media companies fail to correct their reports on this, we will take whatever legal actions possible."

In the meanwhile, Lee Gyu-taek, the floor whip of Grand National Party, said, "We will introduce a bill to Congress on December 16 to appoint a special counsel to investigate this case. In close cooperation with the Liberal Democrats, we will see to it that a special prosecutor be appointed in the near future. It is a matter totally separate from the upcoming presidential election."