Kim Jin-pyo Meets Former Prosecutor-General

It was reported that Kim Jin-pyo, deputy prime minister for finance and economy, and Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Keun-young requested that then Prosecutor-general Kim Kak-young delay the prosecution’s announcement on its investigation into allegations of SK Global inflating profits on March 4.

In addition, Prime Minister Kim is said to have reported this to President Roh Moo-hyun last weekend.

"I consulted with the finance-economy prime minister on this issue and on March 4, he and I met with Prosecutor-general Kim Kak-young to discuss the possible impact on the domestic financial market of SK Global`s alleged window dressing of profits," the head of the nation’s financial watchdog agency, in a meeting with reporters on March 11, said.

"The company’s creditors need time so we called on him to put off the announcement based on the results of the probe. However, the prosecution announced the results as scheduled," he added.

The FSC chairman also added that he called Lee Seok-hwan, a prosecutor in charge of the investigation, to check how much the company fabricated profits in its accounting books as well as other investigation results. He explained he thought that he should do so as head of the nation’s financial watchdog agency.

Prime Minister Kim also had a gathering with reporters in which he acknowledged, "After hearing about the results of the prosecution’s investigation into SK Global`s alleged fabrication of profits from Prosecutor Lee, the FSC chairman worryingly called me in for consultations. So the FSC chairman, also the previous prosecutor-general and I met and talked for about 20 minutes."

“We asked the chief of the prosecution to conduct the investigation in a fair way, but to delay announcement of the results,” the prime minister added. “We did not intend to influence the prosecutors` probe and we don’t have enough power to influence it.”

"The president was briefed on the meeting with the then prosecutor-general during a break at a workshop on national administration last weekend," the prime minister continued.

"Financial institutions need time for preparation, but it is uncertain that the prosecution can delay the announcement,” President Roh was reported to have said in response. “A criminal case is difficult to delay."

Earlier, Moon Jae-in, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, issued a statement saying, "Because of the allegation of external pressure on the prosecution regarding investigation into whether SK Global fabricated profit numbers, an investigation was conducted. According to the results of the probe, Prime Minister Kim and FSC Chairman Lee met with the former prosecutor-general, but there was neither pressure nor any strong requests heard. They did not influence the prosecution’s investigation."

The presidential secretary said that he contacted prosecutors in charge of the investigation to check whether they got any calls from outside the prosecution. He reported there were no such calls and that they had just heard from senior prosecutors about the request. He also said that the prosecution investigation team conducted its probe according to standards and announced the results today.

Mr. Moon also made clear that they would not take issue with the meeting and request. "That an economy-related cabinet minister can convey his opinion to another high-ranking government official considering possible impact on the economy is reasonable," he said.