Grayken had already been grilled for 11 hours on Monday. Tuesday’s interrogation started at 9 a.m. Song Hai-eun, the head of the team, said questioning Grayken took anywhere between twice to five times longer than usual since he is a foreigner. It will continue until a 10-day travel ban on him expires.

Grayken reportedly denied his company lobbied Korean government officials to purchase KEB at a rock-bottom price or conducted insufficient due diligence. He also denied stock price manipulation charges against the offshore fund’s vice chairman Ellis Short and general counsel Michael Thomson. The two Lone Star executives are accused of fixing the stock price of KEB’s credit card arm. Grayken claimed his firm respected the Korean stock exchange law.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal on Monday said the Korean travel ban on Grayken “highlights risks of doing business” in Korea. Grayken arrived in Korea last week as a witness in a case on Lone Star’s alleged irregularities, but Korean authorities placed a 10-day travel ban on him. “Such treatment of foreign investors presents a public-relation challenge for president-elect Lee Myung-bak,” the daily comments, who was elected on a platform of economic growth and reinvigoration through more foreign investment.

(englishnews@chosun.com )