Prosecutors raid office of man over urban development project

Prosecutors raided the home and office of a confidant to a former chief of South Korea's rail operator on suspicions of alleged bribery in connection to a now-scrapped urban development plan in Seoul, officials said Tuesday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said they had seized computer hard disks, documents and account books during the raid that targeted a man identified only by his surname Sohn, who's a close aide to Huh Joon-young, the former president of the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL).

KORAIL was behind the now-defunct development project in Yongsan, located in the heart of Seoul. The 31 trillion-won (US$25.1 billion) project was meant to transform the area near a key railroad station into an international business hub. The project fell through in 2013.

The raid came after the prosecutors found evidence of corruption while investigating an alleged breach of trust by Huh when he led the Yongsan project during his three-year term at KORAIL.

"We are raiding places related to the Yongsan development project," said a prosecution official, who did not elaborate further.

Huh took charge of the megaproject when he was the KORAIL head between 2009 and 2011 during the previous Lee Myung-bak government.

The investigation into the alleged corruption is said to have centered on a period during which Huh was in charge of the train operator.

Huh served as South Korea's police chief before becoming the head of the rail operator. (Yonhap)