Sun & Moon Provided 100 Million Won to Lee Kwang-jae and Hundreds of Millions in Funds to Senior Lawmakers of Grand National...

The Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office has secured evidence that Moon Byung-uk, who attended the same high school as President Roh Moo-hyun and the chairman of Sun & Moon Group, furnished 100 million won to Lee Kwang-jae, who held the highest position and responsibility of briefing the president on state affairs, last year during the presidential election campaign.

The prosecution has also obtained evidence that Moon asked Kim Sung-rae, vice chairman of Sun & Moon Group, to provide hundreds of millions in illegal funds to lawmaker “S” through Hong, chairman of a pharmaceutical company, who is acquainted with “S.” Accordingly, the prosecution is set to summon Lee this week and lawmaker “S” when his suspicion is proved.

The prosecution is investigating whether funds that Lee received from Sun & Moon Group was delivered to Roh’s presidential campaign camp or mistakenly used for other purposes. Lee has repeatedly denied his involvement in the Sun & Moon illegal campaign funds scandal and said, “I will be cooperative with special probes and face questioning without hesitation because I have done nothing illegal.”

The prosecution summoned Hong last Friday and Saturday for questioning on whether Hong delivered funds which were received from Sun & Moon Group to “S” lawmaker. Hong even denied the suspicion that he had received funds from Sun & Moon. The prosecution plans to summon Hong today.

In addition, the prosecution is slated to summon Seon Bong-sul--Roh’s old friend and the former president of Jangsoocheon--today for questioning how Seon received SK slush funds of 340 million won through Choi Do-sul, the former presidential secretary.

Meanwhile, for the investigation on illegal collection of campaign funds, the prosecution plans to summon the chairmen and executive officers of conglomerates such as Samsung, LG, Lotte, and Hyundai Motor this week for questioning whether they provided illicit campaign funds to politicians during last year’s presidential campaign.

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