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Ahn Dae-hee, the head of the Central Intelligence Unit at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, announced Monday the results of the prosecution's investigation into corruption on the part of President Roh Moo-hyun's associates. Ahn said the office has confirmed that the president told his aides Ahn Hee-jung and Choi Do-sul to resolve the problem of his debt at a bottled water company he partly owned, in May and July of last year.
Prosecutors said the amount of illegal presidential campaign funds received by Roh's aides totals W2.23 billion. Including the money, both legal and illegal, received by the day of the election, the figure jumps to more than W6.5 billion, approximately W6 billion of which is currently being investigated. Roh's famous "one tenth" statement, promising to step down if his funds were one-tenth that of his rivals, is likely to be a source of controversy, depending on how much of the money that passed hands is considered "illegal presidential campaign funds."
The prosecution also said that Ahn Hee-jung and Changshin Textile president Kang Geum-won planned to sell Yi Gi-myeong's land in Yongin to repay the debt the bottled water company had with the Korea Lease Financing Company. They are said to have informed the president of their intentions. Prosecutors have concluded that the money borrowed in the form of a sale of the land in Yongin qualifies as a "gratuitous loan of political funds." They have indicted Kang Geum-won for violating the Political Funds Law, based on the W1.9 billion that came out of the transaction, since they consider it to have been illegal political money received by the president.
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From left, Moon Byung-wook, the chairman of the Sun and Moon group, Kang Geum-won, the chairperson of Changshin Textile and former presidential secretary Choi Do-sul.
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They also said that on Dec. 7 of last year, Sun & Moon Group chairman Moon Byung-wook handed Yeo Taek-su, then the head of Roh's entourage, a shopping bag containing W30 million when he met Roh and Yeo together at a tourist hotel in the city of Gimhae. Roh also dined with Moon at a hotel in Seoul's Gangnam neighborhood on Nov. 9 of that year, immediately before Moon gave Lee Kwang-jae W100 million. Lee later became a Cheong Wa Dae official.
Prosecutors said they have no intention of questioning Roh at the moment. "We can fully ascertain the truth by questioning those related" to the case, they said. "The president must continue performing his duties."
"It would not be right to question him currently," Ahn Dae-hee said.
So far the prosecution has indicted or indicted without arrest eight individuals, including Roh's associates: Ahn Hee-jung, Lee Kwang-jae, Choi Do-sul, and Seon Bong-sul, and the people implicated in the Sun & Moon affair, including the former National Tax Service head, Sohn Young-rae.
(Choi Jae-hyeok jhchoi@chosun.com )
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