Prosecutors find huge sums in account linked to Roh's brother

By Yi Whan-woo

Investigators at the Changwon District Prosecutors’ office in South Gyeongsang Province said Friday they have uncovered tens of billions of won in a bank account linked to the elder brother of the late President Roh Moo-hyun.

They said the existence of the account supports allegations that Roh Geon-pyeong, 70, took kickbacks from businessmen in return for influence peddling while his brother was in office.

They revealed that they secured evidence that Roh took huge sums from Park Yeon-cha, the jailed CEO of the Busan-based shoemaker Taekwang, after helping him sell off his property in 2006. Park was convicted of offering illegal funds to politicians including the late President Roh.

The prosecution said it discovered the bank account in the process of investigating the property deal.

In a separate case, Roh Geon-pyeong is suspected of accepting 940 million ($803,000) won from the owner of a construction company in exchange for helping him win a contract for a land reclamation project in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province in 2007.

Prosecutors said they also tracked account transactions between Roh and his aides amounting to 1.4 billion ($1.2 million) that took place over three years until 2008, the year when his brother completed the five-year presidency.

“We believe the money is only the tip of the iceberg as we’ve found a bank account containing tens of billions of won. We’ll step up efforts to get to the bottom of the scandal surrounding Roh,” said an investigator.

The building firm’s share price rose seven-fold after “winning” the reclamation deal, and the elder Roh apparently received kickbacks, prosecutors said.

They are trying to uncover how he spent the money. However, they stressed the probe is separate from one into the late President who leaped to his death from a cliff on May 23, 2009.

Roh's attorney Chung Jae-sung dismissed the prosecution’s claims about the bank account as groundless. He said that Roh plans to sue the investigators for making public such claims.

“With the anniversary of his brother’s death only a few days away, we feared that people would think the investigation was politically-motivated, but it is not,” said an investigator.

Roh was convicted in early 2010 of taking kickbacks from a state-run financial firm. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, but was released in August of the same year following a presidential pardon.