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Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun says he does not remember meeting the head of Lone Star Advisors Korea Yoo Hoe-won, who is under investigation, when Lee agreed last year to represent the Lone Star-owned Korea Exchange Bank. Responding to press reports, he said Sunday if others in the meeting in question claimed Yoo was there, ¡°they may be right.¡± Lee denied there was anything suspicious about fees he received for his legal service at the time.
Lee admits meeting KEB executives including its president twice in hotels in December 2004. But a lawyer familiar with the meeting said Yoo was the top Lone Star representative in Korea at one of the meetings. ¡°It makes no sense that Lee doesn¡¯t remember that,¡± he added.
Yoo, as a senior figure in the offshore investment firm¡¯s business in Korea, played a leading role in appointing lawyers acting for the company at the time. He is in the spotlight because courts have four times this year upset prosecutors by refusing arrest warrants for Yoo. It was known that Lee met KEB officials once, but he voluntarily admitted there was a second meeting.
Lee says he was paid W220 million including a W200 million retainer and W20 million in VAT from KEB in June 2005 but resigned as their lawyer and returned W165 million after being appointed chief justice on Aug. 18 that year. The Supreme Court says Lee represented KEB in the lawsuit ¡°when no one knew he would be named chief justice and a whole year before the scandal broke¡± over KEB's sale to Lone Star at a dumping price. ¡°Lee just did his job as a lawyer.¡±
Court officials suspect prosecutors are behind the insinuation of improper dealings. They say it was known that the chief justice was a lawyer in a KEB-related lawsuit, but the charge that he met Yoo and how much he was paid as a retainer is confidential information only prosecutors would have access to.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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