Probe Stepped up on GNP Fundraising

Ahn Dae-hee, a senior prosecutor directing the campaign funding probe, said on Friday that the prosecution received a clue that some Grand National Party lawmakers deposited hundreds of millions of won to the party’s accounts, which is the remainder of the slush funds they received from conglomerates before last December’s presidential election.

The prosecution received a seizure and search warrant and is now tracking down seven or eight official bank accounts of the GNP financial committee to which illegal funds were deposited.

“We received a clue that some conglomerates’ slush funds, which amounted to less than a billion won, was not sent to the presidential election camp, and instead was directly deposited to the party’s accounts in the form of checks, so we are now investigating it,” said Moon Hyo-nam, a prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutor`s Office. “The money was sent to party members before the presidential election and was deposited to the party’s accounts later.”

Prosecution investigators said some slush funds were not sent to the election camp, but to party members instead, and they learned the fact while tracking down the accounts of the conglomerates. Most of these funds were not recorded on receipts, said the prosecution.

The prosecution said that these funds were not recorded on receipts because “the amount was higher than a corporate contribution limit and (companies and party members) exchanged money personally,” suggesting that the money could be the remainder of the election fund and party members could have used the spare money for personal purposes.

The prosecution will summon GNP lawmaker Choi Don-woong, a campaign fund manger, and Kim Young-iel, who was a former GNP Secretary General and managed the GNP presidential campaign, as early as next week for further questioning over how the party raised and used the fund.

Prosecutors summoned Hyundai Capital President Lee Kye-ahn in secret on Thursday and interrogated him all night about whether the auto financing unit of Hyundai Motor Group raised slush funds and handed over part of the money to the presidential candidates` camps. They also investigated Vice President Chung Seok-soo on whether the company raised slush funds and how he donated 20 million won to the Millenium Democratic Party during last year’s election run-up.

Prosecutors are making further investigations over another fundraising scandal as Kang Byung-joong, a chairman of Nexen Corp., and also a chairman of a Busan broadcasting company, acknowledged he gave money to Choi Do-sul, a close aide to Roh, before and after the presidential election.

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