Locked-Up Companies Open with Account Tracing

“If you confess the amount of illegal election money that you gave to the government and the opposition party, you will be dealt with properly.” (The investigation department public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office)

“If the investigation is carried out in the way like the U.S. randomly attacking Iraq without any proof of weapons of mass destruction, only the company will suffer from it.” (An officer of company A)

Last November 7, around 11 p.m., a prosecutor of the election fund investigation department and company A’s officer were testing their stamina during a tense situation at the 11th floor investigation room of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, Seocho, Seoul. The prosecution had to send the officer back without getting anything out of him.

At that time, the prosecution announced that it will broaden its investigation field to cover Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motors, and Lotte after SK to find out everything about the election fund. However, even after a month of account tracing, the prosecution failed to accomplish its goal. The companies were afraid to open their mouths in case of a political retaliation.

A staff member in the investigation department threatened company B’s officer last November by saying, “If you do not present the election fund, we will explore into the company’s fundamental absurdity through an illegal fund investigation.”

To this, the officer replied, “How can a group of lawyers be so vulgar as to act like this without any evidence?”

The investigation team made a 180-degree turn when it modified its strategy to look for an investigation thread in the politics in early December. The only proviso then was the testimony of GNP’s member Choi Don-woong, which was, “We raised election money by calling to SK and other companies a month before the presidential election.”

It is known that the investigation took a smoother road when the prosecution reverse-traced Roh Moo-hyun’s and the GNP’s accounts. The truth game between the prosecution and company came to an end with lawyer Seo Jung-woo’s arrest last December 8.

An investigation team staff said, “As a large amount of money came in during a short time, capital management was done very loosely, thus allowing us to detect the money rapidly.”

The prosecution postponed the deadline of the investigation from last December to this year and is sending for company officials to question them about the illegal fund supplied to the Roh camp, however, the resistance is growing stronger. Kim In-joo of Samsung, who is still being summoned, threw up as he was asked about the fund given to Roh camp and said, “I have nothing to say.”

On the other hand, due to the long investigation, the prosecution ran out of investigation funds. Thus, the prosecution ordered only Kimchi soup, and the restaurant mass-delivered the soups with a jeep, causing the prosecution building elevator to be filled with the smell of Kimchi every night.

Some of the arrested suspects spoke with sincerity that they did not want to go to Seocho because of the food the prosecution ordered for them. The investigation team was not allowed to go out for 126 days and so Moon Hyo-nam, the SPPO investigation planner, and Nam Ki-choon, the SPPO head of felony department, gained three to eight kg of weight each.

Wi-Yong Jung viyonz@donga.com