President’s elder brother investigated for bribery

By Na Jeong-ju

Prosecutors looking into the bribery scandal involving savings banks said Wednesday they have secured clues suggesting that President Lee Myung-bak’s elder brother Lee Sang-deuk received hundreds of millions of won in bribes from a lender.

The prosecution has referred the case to the Central Investigation Bureau at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which deals with politically-sensitive crimes, to launch a full-scale probe.

The elder Lee, 77, a six-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party and a former National Assembly vice speaker, is suspected of having received kickbacks from the Prime Savings Bank in 2007 in return for business favors.

Prime Savings Bank is one of the small-sized lenders suspended in September for accounting fraud and illegal lending practices. It reportedly offered bribes to a number of politicians and finance officials to stay afloat amid the global financial crisis in 2007.

The bank’s former CEO Kim Sun-kyo was indicted in January on charges of violating lending rules to provide loans amounting to 30 billion won to unqualified borrowers.

“While tracing the back accounts of Lee’s secretaries, we found that the former Prime Savings Bank CEO transferred hundreds of millions of won,” a prosecutor told reporters.

The investigation is expected to deal a further setback to Lee, who is already reeling from a series of corruption scandals. In the face of calls to give up his parliamentary seat, he announced in December that he wouldn’t run in the April 11 National Assembly elections.

Lee has stayed out of party affairs following accusations from ruling party lawmakers that he abused his position to meddle in selecting those for senior government posts and candidates for major elections. He has denied these allegations.

Weeks later, the prosecution indicted one of his key aides, Park Bae-su, for accepting 700 million won in kickbacks from SLS Group Chairman Lee Kuk-chul, who is also facing trial on bribery charges.

Park was also found to have taken 150 million won from Jeil Savings Bank Chairman Yoo Dong-chun. Yoo, who was indicted for misappropriation charges, told investigators that he offered bribes to Rep. Lee’s aides to seek his influence in business affairs. The chairman also said he provided 400 million won to first lady Kim Yoon-ok’s cousin, Kim Jae-hong.