Four Financial Officials in the Roh Camp Under Investigation

The Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office in charge of the investigating the illegal presidential campaign fund-raising scandal summoned Rep. Lee Sang-soo (Uri Party), the former chief of the MDP (Millennium Democratic Party) election management committee during last year’s presidential race, to investigate the campaign finances of President Roh Moo-hyun’s associates yesterday.

Rep. Lee was interrogated along with Kim Hong-sup, the former director of the MDP finance department of the election management committee, former director of the affairs control department Lee Hwa-young, and former vice director of the affairs control department An Iel-won.

The prosecution grilled Lee for detailed information on donations that MDT received last year, including his acceptance of 660 million won from high-ranking officers of the Hyundai Motor Company, which was revealed following the cases involving SK and Samsung. Furthermore, the prosecution questioned him on illegal bank accounts, of which at least two are known to exist, and on whether he received illegal presidential campaign funds. Having garnered substantial evidence regarding donations offered to MDP last year, the prosecution is now carefully scrutinizing each piece of evidence.

Moreover, fueled by the suspicion that some conglomerates furnished slush funds to politicians by raising money through their affiliates, the prosecution is now scrutinizing basic materials and interrogating high-ranking officers from those conglomerates to reveal whether they raised illegal funds and contributed them illegally to presidential campaign funds.

The prosecution is currently investigating other big companies such as Hanwha, Hanjin, and Kumho to determine whether they also contributed illegal presidential campaign funds.

The prosecution is slated to renew its summons of Rep. Kim Young-iel, the former Secretary-general of the opposition Grand National Party, who refused to answer the summons. He objected, “I do not want to be a scapegoat of this unbalanced investigation.” If Rep. Kim continues to reject the summons, the prosecution is considering issuing an arrest warrant or forcing him to cooperate with the investigation. Meanwhile, the prosecution is grilling Seon bong-sul, the former president of the company Jangsoochon, who worked as Roh’s chauffeur. He is being questioned over his role in accepting 230 million won of SK slush funds from the former presidential secretary Choi Do-sul.

Tae-Hoon Lee Jin-Kyun Kil jefflee@donga.com