Rep. Shin Allegedly Receiving Money from GoodMoney

Uri Party Rep. Shin Kye-ryoon, former chief secretary to then 2002 presidential candidate Roh, will be summoned by the prosecution on February 24 for allegedly receiving hundreds and billions of illicit political funds from GoodMoney.

Also, the prosecution will finalize investigations into illicit campaign funds by March 6, pursuing most of the politicians and corporate officials who are involved in illicit fund-raising. The prosecution plans to further investigate deep-seated corporate corruptions even after the timeline, however.

The central investigation department of the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office revealed on February 22 that former president of GoodMoney Kim Young-hoon said that, “Three hundred million was handed to Rep. Shin in early December of 2002 as political funds.”

According to the Prosecutors’ Office, Rep. Shin issued a receipt for only 50 million for the 300-million donation but later returned 200 million to Kim when Kim asked a political favor of Rep. Shin “to annul Financial Supervisory Service’s inspection on GoodMoney,” then issuing an additional receipt of 50 million.

The prosecution will question Rep. Shin on whether or not Kim has told the truth and whether or not he collected additional funds from other corporations.

“We also need to clarify Rep. Shin’s allegations on other minor cases of illicit fund-raising aside from this case,” said Moon Hyo-nam, a prosecutorial official at the Office.

The prosecution has also notified Rep. Lee In-je of the United Liberal Democrats to appear on February 23 or 24 for allegations against him for receiving 250 million among the 500-million illicit funds handed over to the Grand National Party (GNP).

The prosecution has an additional notice to Shin Dong-bin, vice president of Lotte Group, who previously refused to appear, requesting that he appear on the 23rd along with Shin Dong-in, owner of Lotte Shopping.

Meanwhile, the prosecution sought a warrant for former GoodMoney president Kim, related to a charge that he illegally loaned 54,150 million under 322 different names until February of last year, after taking over Gimcheon Savings Bank in September 2002.

After Kim’s arrest, the prosecution will initiate an intense investigation into where the illegally loaned money was distributed or handed over as illicit funds.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com