Police Raid Three Hanwha-Owned Country Clubs

A special Seoul Central District Prosecutors` Office team probing into alleged bribery and influence peddling between the police and Hanwha Group said Friday that it raided three country clubs that Hanwha owns in relation to suspicions that the police chief Lee Taek-sun had played golf with Yoo Si-wang, Hanwha’s security adviser. Yoo and Lee are high school classmates as well.

Prosecutors swooped in on Thursday on three Hanwha-owned golf clubs: the Plaza Country Club YongIn, Jade Palace Country Club in Chuncheon, and Seorak Plaza Country Club in Sokcho, and seized names on reservation lists and CCTV video tapes in an attempt to discover whether the police chief and the Hanwha adviser played golf during the investigation into the Hanwha Group chairman.

On May 4, Rep. Lee Sang-bae from the GNP at the Government Administration & Home Affairs in the Parliament argued, “I received information that the head of the national police agency and Hanwha adviser Yoo played golf together after making a contact on the phone when the incident took place.”

The prosecution has been investigating whether the police chief received any bribe money from Yoo concerning the chairman’s arrest, including surprise searches of the house and office of Yoo. The prosecution revealed Friday that police also made an additional search of the house of an informant involved in the incident.

Meanwhile, Kang Dae-won, former investigation department chief of Namdaemun police station, argued, “The police raids last month failed to bring tangible result, and no new suspicions have arisen since. In that sense, the repeated searches by the prosecution constitute an infringement on human rights.” He added that he will file a petition with the National Human Rights Commission.

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