Assembly Passes Bill to Investigate Samsung Slush Fund

The National Assembly passed a bill to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the alleged bribery scandal involving Samsung in a plenary session yesterday, with 155 votes in favor, 17 against, and 17 abstentions.

The scope of the investigation will include alleged irregularities involving Samsung`s father-to-son wealth transfers; four complaints filed against the Samsung SDI involving the issuance of bonds with warrants; the circumstances surrounding Samsung’s creation of slush funds for illegal lobbying; the alleged provision of campaign funds from its lobbying funds; and the alleged bribery of influential politicians during the 2002 presidential election and of president Roh Moo-hyun, who purportedly received congratulatory money from the conglomerate after the election.

Under the bill, the president will appoint an independent counsel among candidates recommended by the Korean Bar Association and a maximum of 30 special investigators and three assistant independent counsels are assigned to the case. The special investigation team has 60 days to probe the case, but this limit can be extended twice: the first extension can be for up to 30 days, and the second can be for up to 15 days.

However, it remains uncertain whether the bill would be made into law since President Roh Moo-hyun is considering vetoing the bill. Cheong Wa Dae also criticized the bill, claiming that an independent counsel will investigate too broad an area.

“We will take ample time to review (the bill) with all options open,” presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon told reporters yesterday with regard to the possibility of vetoing the bill.

“The possibility of a veto is 50/50,” a senior government official said.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Chung Soung-jin expressed his opposition against the bill, which is based on the agreement reached on Thursday between the United New Democratic Party and the Grand National Party.

“If an independent counsel investigates a case that has already been concluded or confirmed by the court, or which is being dealt with by the Supreme Court, it could be criticized for breaching constitutional principles with regard to the investigation’s excessiveness and violations of equality,” Chung said at a meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which was held before the plenary session.

Although the committee handed the independent counsel bill to the Assembly after changing some words of a clause that stated the targets of the investigation, some experts point out that this is unconstitutional since the actual content has not been changed at all.