Lobbyist Took 1.5B Won From Hyundai

In its Hyundai Motors Group slush fund investigation, the Central Investigation Unit of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office reported on March 31 that it had collected evidence that lobbyist Kim Jae-rok (46, detained), former head of Investus Global, received 1.5 billion won from the Hyundai Motors Group in return for the Group’s real estate purchase to expand its research development center.

Prosecutors say that when Kim was chief of the Korean branch of the accounting firm Arthur Anderson in 2000, he received 1.5 billion won in return for facilitating the Hyundai Motors Group’s purchase of land in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul for its research development center.

The prosecution suspects that the funds were separate from the billions of won Kim received for providing a research development center expansion permit for Hyundai Motors.

Prosecutors discovered that the Hyundai Motors Group purchased the land previously owned by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation for 230 billion won, 70 billion won lower than the original price of 300 billion won, and that Kim had intervened in the transactions.

In order to shed light on the origins and usage of the seven billion won in slush funds confiscated from the Glovis Co. headquarters, the prosecution tracked the checks discovered in the slush fund pile, and called upon Lee Ju-eun (arrested), chief executive officer of Glovis Co., as well as executives from the finance departments of Hyundai Motors for investigation.

Prosecutors secured additional evidence of slush funds in addition to the 15 billion won previously confirmed in the Hyundai Motors Group investigations.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com