Probe into Bribery Case Expands

The prosecution has decided to expand its investigation into a bribery case involving Jeong Yun-jae, 43, former presidential secretary, and Kim Sang-jin, owner of a construction company located in Busan. Meanwhile, the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office carrying out the investigation prohibited about 10 key persons related to this case, including Jeong, from departing from the country yesterday.

Regarding this, Jeong Dong-min, prosecutor of Busan District Prosecutors’ Office, said yesterday that, “The prosecution reinforced its investigation team by appointing Kim Gwang-jun, a senior prosecutor, as a head of this team, and by additionally posting two prosecutors and eight investigators to the probe. The case has been investigated under the control of one prosecutor who belongs to special investigation team.”

Considering the prosecution’s departure prohibition against the key persons named, those who are allegedly involved in the case, including Jeong Yun-jae, Kim Sang-jin, and Kim Hyo-jin (brother of the Kim Sang-jin) are expected to be summoned by the prosecution.

Meanwhile, regarding the suspicion that Kim raised slush funds, prosecutor Jeong said, “After reinforcing our investigation team, we summoned five or six employees of Kibo Technology Fund (KTF) and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KCGF) in order to trace Kim’s illegal bank accounts, and called for the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office (SPPO) to dispatch an account-tracing team of experts.”

In particular, the prosecution asked the employees of these financial agencies to explain how Kim, who was arrested on July 16 for embezzling 6.2 billion won from the KTF and KCGF, managed to pay back the money right before a review of the legality of his confinement that started on July 27. Based on this, the prosecution seems to have found the source of Kim’s funding by identifying banks issuing checks that were included in Kim’s repayment.

Meanwhile, the special team dispatched by the SPPO plans to probe the whereabouts of 15.7 billion won, which is a part of 23 billion won that Kim illegally grabbed by inflating the price of land that was purchased as the site of an apartment construction project in Yeonsan-dong, Yeonjae-gu, Busan.