Duplicate Account Books Used for Political Funds

An incumbent member of the National Assembly has been found by the National Election Commission to have kept a duplicate account book different from the one reported to the NEC.

The NEC revealed on Monday that “we have charged the Representative with the initial ‘P’ after studying his account book for 2000-2003 and finding that he had reported forged accounts of donations and fund records. Representative P is a member without any political party affiliation and bases his local electorate in Seoul.”

It was the first time for an incumbent member to be caught using a duplicate account book involving political funds. According to the NEC, Representative P and his wife have made violations of the law on donations for special occasions in which the election law limits the expense to 15,000 won. Moreover, the couple has sent 33 million worth of flowers to local constituents in birthdays for the past 3 years, asking for support. They also organized an alpine club in 1998 and for three years, provided 27.84 million worth of expenses for food, chartered a bus and others. Representative P claims that “the alpine club is not an organization for a private purpose, but a social gathering which any district party has, and the donations for special events were made privately by my wife.” Meanwhile, Representative P announced this day that he would no long run for the 17th general election and that he had rejoined the Grand National Party.

Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com