Moon Asked For a Tax Reduction From Ahn Hee-jung

Moon Byung-uk, the chairman of the Sun & Moon Group, admitted, “I asked for a tax reduction from Ahn Hee-jung in a casual way” when questioned about his alleged attempt to obtain a tax reduction by asking a favor of Roh Moo-hyun right after the in-house nomination election of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) on December 2002,

Moon, attending a parliamentary hearing into illegal presidential campaign fund-raising, said that “because audits ended at that time, I though it might be workable to ask Roh through Ahn.” In short, he admitted the suspicions on him.

Moon’s admission is expected to exert a remarkable influence because his testimony is a partial confirmation of claims made by Kim Seong-rae, vice chairman of the Sun & Moon Group. Kim testified that “after hearing from Ahn, Roh called the former National Tax Service commissioner Sohn Young-rae and asked for tax reduction for Moon.”

However, Moon said, “I did not ask Roh directly and I do not know whether Ahn delivered it to Roh.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Cho Jae-hwan of the Millennium Democratic Party revealed, “Good Money, a loaning company, furnished 1 billion won two times before and after the presidential election to Roh through Rep. Sin, who served as chief secretary to Roh. On February 2003, another 1 billion won to Roh was given in compensation for helping escape the investigation of the Financial Supervisory Service. Thus, the total amount Roh received from Good Money reached 3 billion won.”

Rep. Cho said, “Roh expressed his gratitude by saying ‘thank you’ and I know who retains the CD recording of Roh’s voice,” and strongly urged prompt investigation of the prosecution.

In response, Rep. Sin refuted the charges, saying that “I did not deliver any funds to Roh when he was candidate or president, formally or informally.” Presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young said that “groundless claims are continuously coming out. If this pace keeps on, we will not hold our hands any more, take legal action against it, and call for a thorough investigation.”

Regarding the “Samsung slush fund reservoir” addressed by MDP legislator Kim Kyung-jae, Prosecutor General Song Kwang-soo said, “We have found a great deal of bonds in the bonds market. Now, we are investigating to see if they came from Samsung. Thus, we can not surely say it is from Samsung now.”

Regarding alleged illegal campaign funds provided by Sun & Moon Group, Song said, “We will cover cases of Sin Sang-woo, former vice chairman of the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, and Yeo Taek-soo within this year.

Yong-Gwan Jung Myoung-Gun Lee yongari@donga.com gun43@donga.com