Prosecution Decides Not to Seek Indictment of President Roh and Lee Hoi-chang

Central Investigation Department Chief Ahn Dae-hui of the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office announced on May 21 that it will not prosecute President Roh Moo-hyun and the former leader of the Grand National Party (GNP). “Both President Roh and Lee have no direct link to the fund-raising for the presidential election,” said Ahn at the investigation report regarding the illegal fund-raising of presidential election funds during the last nine months, starting from late August 2003, with the first investigation series on SK’s secret funds.

The prosecution also did not prosecute Lee Kun-hee, CEO of Samsung Group, regarding the corporation’s charges of handing over 36 billion won in political funds to the political circles, but instead prosecuted Lee Hak-soo, director of the group’s structural reorganization, without physical restraint.

In addition, the prosecution also reported their corporate case investigation principles which will take on a strict investigation if new evidence of corporate corruption such as fraudulent corporate auditing and secret fund raising are obtained.

Also, it prosecuted, with informal proceedings, eight other representatives who received illicit political funds of approximately 200 million won upon entering the GNP right before the presidential election in 2002.

The prosecution decided to soon indict GNP Rep. Uhm Ho-sung, who allegedly made personal use out of the illicit political funds sent by the central party during the presidential election and also allegedly received bribes during the process of public nomination for municipal representatives, without physical restraint.

The prosecution also found out that Ahn Hee-jung, a close aide of President Roh, has cashed 1.5 billion won in bonds, among the three billion won in bonds that he received from Samsung in June and November 2002, into one billion won in cash through Kang Geum-won, president of Changshin Textiles, and that Ahn used the money in paying the debt of Jangsuchon, a mineral water company. It further indicted Ahn for the charges.

In addition, the prosecution decided not to take legal action toward the findings that President Roh has received political funds from several companies since the law regulates that “the president is not an object of criminal persecution.”

Regarding the former GNP leader, Lee Hoi-chang, the prosecution decided to exempt Lee from his charges of ordering the amassing 15.4 billion won Samsung bonds, which was left over from the presidential election funds, because he did not take advantage of the funds and later returned it, and also because Attorney Seo Joeng-woo, his close aide, was penalized for that.

The prosecution confirmed that Samsung had bought 80 billion won bonds from the debenture trading market from 2000 until 2002, regarding the Samsung bond investigation, but could not trace where the rest of the 50 billion won bonds went except for the 30.2 billion won bond that was handed over to political circles.

“We have not found evidence to overturn Samsung’s claim that it was the CEO’s private property,” said the prosecution regarding the whereabouts of the bonds.

The prosecution suspended the indictment of Kim Seung-yon, president of Hanhwa Group, who is staying in the U.S. for an extended period of time.

jin0619@donga.com