Impending Summoning of Those Involved in Grand National Party Campaign Fund

Ahn Dae-hee, a senior prosecutor investigating the SK slush fund scandal, remarked on October 24 that the prosecution will summon members of Grand National Party involved in Choi Don-woong’s accepting a bribe of 10 billion won from this weekend at the earliest.

It was revealed that prosecutors directed a travel ban on many of the party executives who will be summoned. A source on that day hinted the impending summoning of Grand National Party’s leaders by saying, “A practical summoning will be made as collecting basic documents was completed. The coming week will be crucial.”

The prosecution discovered the circumstance in which the key members of the election polling committee were involved in Choi’s accepting the bribe of 10 billion won and is assuming the likelihood of negotiations between the leaders of the party and SK as to the specific amount of the campaign fund.

It was reported that Choi, during the investigation of previous day, said, “I asked money from SK according to the request from the party, and I just played the role as liaison.”

Prosecutors will summon and interrogate Kim Young-ill, the head of the Grand National Party’s election polling committee, who was in charge of the financial administration and Lee Jae-hyun, the financial director at the time of election last year.

The prosecution allegedly summoned Choi again informally to make a more detailed investigation into the role of the election polling committee leaders including Kim, the head at that time, but they did not make this summoning open to public.

Meanwhile, a prosecutor source said, “We have not yet traced the accounts of the financial bureau of Grand National Party or Choi, and we will carry it out within limits when necessary.”

In addition, this source, as to the possibility of Lee Hoi-chang being investigated, said that it had not been considered yet and that it was not time to consider a travel ban for him.

Jin-Kyun Kil leon@donga.com