By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors are investigating whether TV program directors received casino chips worth millions of won from an entertainment company in bribes.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Tuesday said it recently raided Kangwon Land, the only casino open to locals, to seize documents and other data.
Its investigation into allegations that the directors received casino chips came days after they were tipped off that some program directors were offered shares of the entertainment company, Fantom Entertainment, via borrowed-name bank accounts.
``We found some suspicious share transfers between producers and company managers,'' a prosecutor said.
The prosecution launched an investigation early this month into some 40 program directors including some chief directors at the three major broadcasters ㅡ KBS, MBC and SBS ㅡ for allegedly taking bribes from the entertainment company. Some of them have been banned from leaving the country.
The probe is part of prosecutors' investigation into MBC's ``PD Notebook,'' which allegedly distorted and exaggerated the risks of U.S. beef in a series of programs.
It plans to summon and question them over the alleged bribery in exchange for giving favors to entertainers of the company.
According to the prosecution, in 2005, Fantom Entertainment offered producers some 800,000 shares in exchange for favoring their entertainers. The company's initial stock worth of 300 won climbed to 43,000 won in just one year and the producers in question allegedly reaped huge gains.
The entertainment agency, founded in 2005, became one of the country's top three entertainment companies. But it was implicated in a stock price manipulation scandal in 2006, putting its chairman behind bars.
The investigation prompted a strong protest from TV producers especially those at MBC. ``It's aimed to tame producers and thereby broadcasting companies as a whole,'' the MBC association's leader Kim Young-hee said.