Counsel Finds Samsung’s W43 Bil Slush Fund
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The independent counsel currently probing Samsung Group's alleged slush fund creation found part of a massive fund, which was collected in 2002 to bribe then presidential candidates. The fund went missing after the election.
The investigation team led by special prosecutor Cho Joon-woong said Sunday that it confirmed the whereabouts of a 43.33 billion won slush fund collected during the 2002 presidential election. Investigators said the fund had been kept in Samsung's accounts.
The nation's largest conglomerate collected about 83 billion won in 2002 by purchasing 83.7 billion worth of bonds from the private money market to provide them with then influential presidential candidates ― Lee Hoi-chang, Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-pil.
Of the funds collected, 30 billion won illegally financed the Lee Hoi-chang camp, presidential candidate for the conservative Grand National Party, and 1.5 billion won was delivered to Roh Moo-hyun camp, presidential candidate for now-defunct United New Democratic Party, and Kim Jong-pil, candidate for United Liberal Democrats, respectively, according to the counsel.
``We found the whereabouts of the fund worth 44.33 billion won left among 83 billion won collected during the 2002 presidential election,'' the counsel said. ``We will soon summon people engaged in the fund creation, who left the country in 2004 when the prosecution investigated the case, to question them on overall matters concerning the fund.''
The investigation team also said it found more than three billion won of the fund had been distributed to politicians in Gyeonggi Province and Daegu.
Meanwhile, an overseas travel ban has been imposed on Lee Hoi-chang's son as of the end of last month, to question him over the alleged embezzlement of the presidential campaign funds in 2002.