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Prosecutors are questioning Roh Gun-pyeong, the elder brother of former president Roh Moo-hyun, after having indicted Jeong Hwa-sam, a high school friend of the ex-president¡¯s, for receiving W3 billion (US$1=W1,464) in the process of lobbying for Nonghyup, or the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation to take over Sejong Securities. As he was being investigated, Jeong reportedly said W2 billion out of the W3 billion in bribes were meant for the elder Roh. Prosecutors say they have circumstantial evidence showing that Roh Gun-pyeong owned a stake in a gambling parlor operated by Jeong and his brother and had been receiving dividends. Sources in the prosecution say an investigation of Roh is inevitable.
Former president Roh, in a nationally televised address in March 2004, said his brother was just a simple old countryman -- at the time the simple man was involved in a scandal for allegedly being offered W30 million by former Daewoo Engineering & Construction president Nam Sang-kook, who wanted to keep his job. At the time, Roh said he wished educated men like the former Daewoo executive would leave his brother alone. After the televised address, Nam committed suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Han River, and the elder Roh got a two-year suspended sentence. Nam¡¯s family kept their mouths shut during Roh¡¯s term in office.
According to the investigation, the elder Roh then involved himself in the lobbying efforts over Sejong Securities in 2005. From his rustic hovel, he called the CEO of Nonghyup and introduced Jeong to him as someone who came from the ¡°same neighborhood.¡± That one phone call prompted the Nonghyup CEO to drop plans to acquire another brokerage on much better terms and pursue the acquisition of Sejong Securities. And that one phone call was also enough to get the agriculture minister at the time, who had been opposed to Nonghyup¡¯s acquisition of any brokerage, to stand down.
There have been several other accounts linking this simple countryman to the exercise of tremendous powers behind the scenes in the appointment of officials in government posts, especially in top positions at state-run institutions. One dramatic example involves the president of a state-run company who sought the favor of the ruling party in the appointment of an official. When he learned that his request had been rejected, the executive happened to be driving along the Seoul-Busan expressway and immediately headed for Gimhae, the elder Roh¡¯s bucolic idyll.
No matter how hard the former president tries, power-hungry people in this country know exactly what some simple country folk can do for them. People who think about the future get worried about the potential backlash when the president¡¯s term ends. But simple men like the president¡¯s brother, surrounded by flatterers, are oblivious to the risks and imagine they are kings, only to face a tragic end. A common theme in these stories involving presidents¡¯ brothers is that they all think they are the exception.
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