By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The special prosecutor investigating Samsung summoned Lee Soon-dong, 60, president of Samsung's strategic planning office, to question him over the allegation that the company opened bank and stock accounts under its executives names to create slush funds, and the role of his office in the process.
He is the first executive of the strategic planning office to be questioned over his alleged role in creating and managing the conglomerate's slush fund, used for bribery.
Lee Hyung-do, 65, vice chairman of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, was also called in on the same day.
Investigators for the special prosecutor, Cho Joon-woong, continued their investigation of warehouses belonging to Samsung Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, which they raided Monday.
``We are looking for works of art allegedly acquired using the money from the company's slush fund,'' Yoon Jung-seok, assistant special prosecutor, told reporters. ``We will verify that the paintings were acquired lawfully.''
In the raid by 14 investigators, hundreds of paintings and antiques were found inside the warehouse, an investigator said, but refused to elaborate on the actual contents, which supposedly includes Roy Lichtenstein's ``Happy Tears'' that was sold for $7.1 million at a Christie's auction in 2002.
Kim Yong-chul, the former in-house lawyer of Samsung, has claimed that family members of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee spent 60 billion won purchasing several works of art including ``Happy Tears'' between 2002 and 2003 using part of the conglomerate's slush fund.
Samsung had said that the warehouses had been used as an indoor training field for guide and rescue dogs, rebuffing the claim that paintings were stored in the warehouse. Following the raid, however, the company did an about face, saying that paintings awaiting exhibition at Leeum, a museum managed by Samsung, were stored there.
Confiscation of the painting remains undecided for fear of possible damage to them during the investigation, the investigator said.
In related news, the special prosecutor hinted at further raids to secure documents proving Samsung's creation of the slush fund and involvement in bribery, and the questioning of key suspects involved in purchasing the works of art.
Meanwhile, the daily Hankyoreh reported Tuesday that Samsung SDI, a subsidiary of the conglomerate, earlier this month ordered its employees to relocate computer data saved on their personal computers to an independent server, before deleting all transmitted data.
The report said the files relocation had been made in preparation for a predicted raid on the company.