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Investigators asked Lee why, in a lecture at a CEO program hosted by Kwangwoon University on Oct. 17, 2000, he spoke as if he had founded the now defunct boiler-room operation BBK. They also wanted to know why he used a business card making him out to be the firm’s president.

Investigators also focused on charges of asset concealment. They wanted to know whether Lee asked former POSCO chairman Kim Man-je to purchase land in Dogok-dong, southern Seoul, and whether it was held in proxy for him. They also grilled the president elect about an allegation that he showed favoritism in land sales for the Digital Media City project in western Seoul when he was Seoul mayor.

The team apparently came to Lee instead of summoning him because they failed to obtain decisive evidence that could reverse the results of a previous investigation by prosecutors, which cleared Lee of all charges. The special counsel has been investigating for 34 days since it was launched on Jan. 15. He has apparently concluded that Lee had no hand in the management of BBK and a stock-price fixing scheme by his ex-business partner Kim Kyung-joon. He also seems persuaded that there was no favoritism in the DMC project.

Questioning Lee’s elder brother Lee Sang-eun also provided no evidence that Lee was the actual owner of the land. Prosecutors in a previous probe concluded ambiguously that the land was owned by a “third party” other than Sang-eun and his brother in law, who appear on the documents, but added there was no evidence that was the president elect.

The special probe is therefore likely again to clear Lee of the charges when results are announced on Friday or Saturday.

(englishnews@chosun.com )