By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors have seized the financial regulator's inspection documents on Woori Bank and Goodmorning Shinhan Securities as part of their investigation into the allegation that Samsung Group kept slush funds in accounts opened under the names of its executives at the two firms.
The prosecution said Tuesday that it is reviewing the result of an inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on a Woori Bank branch located in the Samsung headquarters building in central Seoul and a Goodmorning Shinhan Securities branch in southern Seoul.
The FSS audited the two branches following a former Samsung insider's claim that the group kept five billion won in four accounts registered under his name at the bank and securities firm which he never opened.
The regulator reportedly failed to find out how those accounts were managed.
For the review, the prosecution requested a local court issue a search warrant on the FSS.
``We needed the warrant, because the FSS' inspection results included personal financial records that we could not obtain without one,'' a prosecutor said.
The prosecution is focusing on examining money transactions in suspicious accounts, and has increased the number of prosecutors working the case from four to 10.
``After a certain period, banks and securities firms send their documents to their data storage centers. They also destroy documents after five years. So it takes time for us to trace money transactions as we have to search most of the related documents at the data centers, not at each branch,'' he said.
Prosecutors are also examining seven accounts registered under former Samsung lawyer Kim Yong-chul's name, which were opened without his knowledge, along with 100 accounts suspected of having been opened under Samsung executives' names to hide the slush fund. They discovered the 100 accounts during raids on Samsung Securities headquarters, the firm's data center, and Samsung SDS' data center late last month.
``We cannot confirm whether the names were borrowed, or stolen, through testimonies from one side. We need to investigate all those involved from both sides,'' the prosecutor said, indicating they may question Samsung executives.