Prosecution Suspects UDP for Prior Knowledge About BBK Scandal

Prosecutors are in the final stage in their investigation into a host of lawsuits during the presidential campaign period, including the so-called BBK scandal.

The probe has been unfolding at a high speed as former and incumbent lawmakers of the United Democratic Party (UDP) responded to the prosecutors’ summons, following the arrival of Lee Bo-ra, who is the wife of Kim Kyung-joon.

The prosecution plans to announce the result of its investigation either during the first or second week of June given the statute of limitations on the case runs out June 19.

Prosecutors are said to have found some convincing evidence against Kim and his family, who disclosed a written contract suggesting President Lee Myung-bak is the real owner of BBK and submitted a memo in which he claimed to have been conciliated by a prosecutor to give certain testimony.

However, it does not mean the investigation is over, especially when it comes to the suspicion involving Kim’s planned return to Korea.

Prosecutors found evidence that Lee Hye-hoon, who served as the former spokesman of former Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye during the GNP party nomination, and Chung Bong-ju, a former lawmaker of the Uri Party, had had phone conversations with Kim.

However, Kim and his wife persistently have denied the suspicion regarding his return to Seoul. Moreover, it is not easy to grasp from the telephone conversation records what exactly they talked about, or to secure evidence to verify that they had conspired with regard to Kim’s return to Korea. In the same vein, it is also hard to prove that Kim was ordered to disclose that President Lee was implicated in the BBK stock manipulation scandal.

For these reasons, a growing attention has been on the possibility that the prosecutors would make public the investigation results about politicians’ alleged contacts with Kim, even though they do not bring charges against the politicians.

Meanwhile, investigators also found that former lawmaker Chung, who was accused of spreading false rumors during the election campaign, had exchanged e-mails with his aides during their claims about President Lee’s involvement in the case. In an e-mail, they talked about the possibility that the accusation about Lee’s involvement could be false.

A prosecution source said, “Even though it turns out true that some politicians’ aides flew to the United States or made several phone calls with Kim’s side, we haven’t found any direct relations between them and Kim’s return. Given this, it would be more accurate to say that those lawmakers competed with one another to contact Kim for the benefit of their political gains.”

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