500 Billion Won Embezzlement Case Unfolds in Good Morning City

During the investigation of the alleged bribery case involving Good Morning City (GMC) shopping mall, the Seoul Prosecutor`s Office found yesterday that GMC executive Yoon Chang-yeol (49) collected over 500 billion won from shop applications and bank loans and spent the money for personal use.

Damages and implications from the case will spill out further since the amount of money exceeded 35 billion won, which was the estimated amount of money when a warrant was issued.

“Of the 500 billion won Yoon collected, 348 billion came from store applicants at the mall while 152 billion came from bank and private loans on the security of real estate, possessed by his firm,” said a source at the prosecution office and added, that “prosecutors are currently investigating where the money was spent as the current bank balance turned out minus.”

Prosecutors said it would take some time until they found out how and where the money was spent since the firm`s book and real expenditure of the money were inconsistent and related people had different explanations.

The prosecutor`s office put all four prosecutors in the Dept. 2 in charge of this case.

Prosecutors are examining whether the money, delivered to four former and incumbent representatives of the ruling party including party chairman Chyung Dai-chul was a bribe offered to gain special favors.

Prosecutors have been interested in Yoon`s testimony that he was introduced to Rep. Chyung Dai-chul, who represented the district where Yoon started to build GMC mall in 2001 and that he delivered 5 million won as a donation to former Rep. Kim Han-kil at the request of Rep. Chyung.

When entering the Seoul District Court for serving the arrest warrant, Yoon told the press that “the money was delivered to politicians so that the business could be approved.”

The prosecutor`s office announced that “even if the money given to politicians was recorded in a company book as a donation and a receipt was issued, this could be certain criminal activity if the money was used for a special favor.”

In the meantime, it was revealed that the Yoon case has not been investigated almost for a year since June of last year, when Seoul Police Agency, detecting that Yoon stole 800 million won from his company, reported the case to Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office.

In response, a staff member at the office said that “Yoon`s case had to wait until we examined other arrested persons since confirmation of Yoon`s alleged crimes was difficult.” He also explained that “the shopping mall was almost fully occupied by the time we took the case. Therefore, damages, if turns out bigger than anticipated, is not attributable to the belated investigation.”

Sang-Rok Lee Tae-Hoon Lee myzodan@donga.com jefflee@donga.com