By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The Cabinet formally endorsed a bill to empower a special prosecutor, Tuesday, to investigate the alleged slush fund creation by the Samsung Group.
The endorsement was made in a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Roh Moo-hyun.
Next week the President will ask the head of the Korean Bar Association to recommend three candidates for the special prosecutor position in a week. Roh will pick one among the three candidates within three days of the recommendation.
The independent counsel is likely to launch an investigation early January, considering it has 20 days to prepare for the probe and get investigation records from the prosecution, which is currently looking into the case. The counsel can have three assistants, three prosecutors and 40 special investigators on his or her team.
The investigation will be conducted for 60 days, but the counsel can extend the period for a further 45 days. When the special counsel indicts suspects, the courts will give priority to the case over others.
The special prosecutor will investigate whether the nation's largest conglomerate created a slush fund, whether it lobbied key public officials and whether a father-to-son wealth transfer was legal.
Samsung's alleged kickback to Roh after the 2002 presidential election will also be dealt with.
In the meantime, the prosecution has been combing through 120 borrowed-name accounts allegedly managed by Samsung.
The move comes after the prosecution raided and searched Samsung Securities, the firm's data center, and Samsung SDS' data center, which are suspected of having helped the conglomerate's slush fund creation.
Prosecutors are looking into 100 accounts they found during the raid, and 20 which Samsung's former legal department director Kim Yong-chul claimed were used for oiling policymakers, prosecutors and lawmakers.
A prosecutor said the prosecution needs to investigate thoroughly before confirming those accounts were related to a slush fund, saying prosecutors are considering summoning the executives under whose names the accounts were opened.