Samsung Probe Focuses on Lawyer Kim`s New Revelation

Special prosecutor Cho Jun-woong investigating Samsung Group’s slush fund case said on March 6 that he would get to the bottom of yet another ‘allegation of Samsung Group’s monetary lobbying,’ which was claimed by the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice.

About the revelation of the priests’ association, special prosecutors said, “We will secure detailed statements and information from Kim Yong-chul, a former Samsung legal affairs official. For a thorough investigation, we will also take in information from the association if necessary.”

The special counsel regards the priests’ association’s claim that the lawyer handed over bribe in person as a lead for an investigation.

Assistant special prosecutor Yoon Jeong-seok said, “First of all we need a detailed statement from Kim. And he should provide all the information he has to us.”

Kim is expected to be considering voluntarily complying with the prosecution’s request for next week’s interrogation.

The special counsel said that it will look into Kim’s first revelation last November regarding the prosecutor-general, chief of the Central Investigation Department at the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office and the commissioner of the presidential Korea Independent Committee Against Corruption.

So far Kim was questioned by special prosecutors as a reference but he never made specific comments on Samsung’s lobbying of politicians and bureaucrats, the probe team said.

The special counsel said the vice president of the Samsung strategic planning office, Choi Kwang-hae, was questioned the day before for his involvement in the creation of slush fund. The interrogation session has been recorded.

According to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan, President Lee Myung-bak briefly mentioned the ongoing probe on March 6, saying, “That’s too bad.”

A Cheong Wa Dae official said, “Kim, served as a prosecutor, knows that a person who blows whistle should present evidence but his claims do not even have when, where, who, what, why and how.