Choi Do-sul, Enormous Money Laundering After the Presidential Election

The central department of investigation, the Supreme Prosecutors Office (Ahn Dae-hee, Chief), which is looking into the “SK Secret Reserve” case, pointed out on October 12 the evidence that Choi Do-sul, the former Cheong Wa Dae secretary, was active in money laundering large amounts through another person, and has investigated him.

The prosecution determined this suspicion through tracing accounts and found that the money they had been following was not determined to be from SK group or another company.

The prosecution plans to summon Choi on October 14 and investigate him on grounds of receiving funding from other companies besides SK.

The prosecutors also made it clear that Choi Don-woong, the congressman of GNP (Grand National Party) received 10 billion won from SK Group and that he used a portion of the money on his private organization.

The prosecution obtained the secret information that a large amount of money was drawn from the account on which congressman Choi operated his private organization. The prosecutors will summon Choi on October 15 to investigate if this was true and to confirm that this money was from SK Group.

The prosecutions made it clear that Choi Don-woong, the congressman of GNP, received reserves from SK Group without issuing a receipt and didn’t report it to the National Election Commission.

Meanwhile Lee Sang-su, the congressman of the newly unified party, who will be summoned on October 25, insisted, “We received around 2.5 billon won from SK group and issued a receipt.” But the prosecution secured circumstance that the reserves from SK group were treated abnormally, and it is investigating the illegal collection of the president election and where it was used. With regards to the “Hyundai reserves” scandal, the prosecution will summon Park Kwang-tae, the mayor of Gwangju on October 15 and investigate the suspicion whether he received several million won from Hyundai with the request of support at the period of the chairman at Commerce Industry & Energy Committee in the national assembly.

Jin-Kyun Kil Wi-Yong Jung viyonz@donga.com leon@donga.com