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Jeong Yun-jae Phoned Kim Sang-jin 30 Times Last Month

Posted September. 22, 2007 08:45,   

Following the arrest on September 9 of Jeong Sang-gon (53) for accepting a bribe while he was serving as chief of the Busan Regional National Tax Service, former protocol secretary to the president Jeong Yun-jae (44) was identified by prosecutors as having contacted a builder named Kim Sang-jin (42), who was already arrested, on 30 occasions over a month using a phone registered with another name.

Jeong Dong-min, a senior prosecutor of the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office, said at a press conference, “From August 9 to September 5 when Kim was re-arrested, former protocol secretary Jeong and Kim exchanged 19 phone calls and 11 text messages. Before then, they merely talked on the phone once or twice a month.”

Senior prosecutor Jeong said, “As Kim sent text messages via a borrowed phone, the former presidential secretary made phone calls using third party phones, including his wife’s.”

He added, “This was included on the list of reasons to arrest him when asking for a search warrant, but the court judged the absence of concern over destroying evidence,” adding, “This is inevitably a difference of opinion between the court and the prosecutors’ office.”

The prosecution said that it also figured out that on August 8, the former secretary made a phone call to the Busan tax chief when a search warrant was sought for the chief.

The prosecution plans to re-claim a search warrant on former secretary Jeong after summoning his relatives, including his elder brother, for a corroborative investigation.

Meanwhile, Busan Yeonje District Governor Lee Wi-jun (64), who borrowed 2.75 billion won from Pusan Bank and embezzled it after writing a fake service agreement, was bribed with 100 million won by Kim. On charges of fraud and bribery according to the Law Concerning Increased Punishment for Specified Economic Crimes, Kim was arrested on the same day.



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