By Kim Rahn
An in-law of first lady Kim Yoon-ok has allegedly received hundreds of millions of won from the chairman of Jeil Savings Bank while working as a senior advisor to the suspended financial institution.
Jeil Chairman Yoo Dong-chun, arrested for corporate fund embezzlement, recently testified that the debt-ridden bank appointed the husband of Kim’s sister, Hwang Tae-seop, in 2008 and has paid him 10 million won ($8,600) per month in counseling fees for the last three years, according to a joint investigation team, Friday.
The team is looking into whether the appointment and payments were part of the bank’s efforts to prevent its operations from being suspended in expanding investigations into the bribery scandal.
“We’ve confirmed that Hwang received the money. But we have yet to determine whether it was a bribe,” a prosecutor said.
With the Lee Myung-bak administration entering its final year, corruption allegations involving the President’s family and relatives are breaking as similar scandals emerged in the last periods of former presidents as well.
Hwang is the second relative of President Lee to be implicated in the money-for-influence scandal surrounding the bank. The first lady’s cousin Kim Jae-hong was arrested Wednesday for accepting bribes from the lender.
“We confirmed that Hwang, a non-expert on finance, worked as an advisor to the bank and received money. We are investigating whether the bank sought his influence, but haven’t found any of his involvement in lobbying efforts yet,” a prosecutor on the team said.
Hwang was a businessman and worked for Lee during the presidential election.
Besides Hwang, the team also arrested Kim Jae-hong, the head of a welfare foundation under the state-run tobacco distributor KT&G, Wednesday night on charges of taking 400 million won in kickbacks from Yoo since 2009 in exchange for helping the troubled bank.
The investigation is looking into whether the foundation chief lobbied high-profile figures in financial regulatory bodies in return for the money.
Earlier in 2009, another cousin of the first lady was sentenced to three years in jail for receiving 3 billion won in bribes in exchange for election nominations and job opportunities at state-run companies.
