The Samsung Group and prosecutors are on their guard after the Catholic Priests¡¯ Association for Justice warned it will next Monday spill the beans on a slush fund allegedly created by the nation¡¯s biggest conglomerate. Kim In-kook on Thursday said the association will reveal detail of how Samsung created secret funds at a press conference. The Catholic organization initially also planned to reveal what it says were internal Samsung guidelines for lobbying influential figures but changed its mind due to the opposition of some members, the priest added.
A member of the association said the guidelines may yet be made public through other civic organizations.
A Samsung spokesman denied the existence of any such internal guidelines. Prosecutors say they could launch an investigation of the alleged slush funds depending how detailed the information the organization reveals will be. They say they are already reviewing targets and method of an investigation.
Prosecutor-General Chung Sang-myung on Wednesday told a parliamentary audit of the Supreme Public Prosecutors¡¯ Office he would take ¡°necessary measures¡± after reviewing the credibility of the information. Prosecutors seem nervous given that information the former Samsung legal chief Kim Yong-chul is said to have handed over to the CPAJ includes a list of some 40 prosecutors who allegedly took bribes from the conglomerate.
Kim, an ex-prosecutor himself, served as the head of Samsung¡¯s legal team from 1997 to 2004. He said Thursday he himself delivered bribes to senior prosecutors or used other executives as bagmen on a regular basis when he was working for the conglomerate. He said Samsung spent W1 billion (US$1=W904) a year on bribing the 40 prosecutors -- W5 million at a time for most, and W10 million for key prosecutors.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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