Prosecutors said Wednesday they will summon the elder brother of former President Roh Moo-hyun, who has emerged as a key figure in a widening influence-pedaling scandal involving the 2006 sale of an ailing securities firm, according to Yonhap News.
Roh Gun-pyeong, 66, is suspected of playing the role of a middleman when the state-run mega firm, Nonghyup, or the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, took over Sejong Securities Co. as it teetered on the brink of collapse in January 2006.
Roh, who was formerly convicted of bribery in another influence-pedaling scandal that led to a suicide of a prominent businessman, has denied the allegations. Roh Moo-hyun has yet to comment on the latest scandal.
Prosecutors are currently scrutinizing his bank accounts for evidence of bribery and plan to summon him soon, said Choi Jai-kyeong, spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
"Investigators are tracking his accounts. We've found no concrete evidence yet to confirm the allegations," Choi was quoted as saying.
Driven to the edge of default, Sejong Securities wanted to be taken over by Nonghyup, rather than private, smaller entities. Nonghyup is a public-funded firm that provides farmers and livestock breeders with soft loans and marketing services and also has financial and retail-wholesale operations under its wing.
The ailing securities firm's major shareholder and financier, Sejong Capital, was led at the time by a friend of Roh Gun-pyeong. The Sejong Capital chief, Hong Gi-ok, turned to the president's brother for help in selling the brokerage house to Nonghyup, prosecutors say.
There are two other men involved in the lobbying _ Jeong Hwa-sam, a high school friend of former President Roh, and his brother Gwang-yong. Hong and the Jeong brothers were arrested earlier this week.
Prosecutors allege about 3 billion won ($2 million) had been handed over to the lobbyists, who then put the money in borrowed-name bank accounts. The main issue of the investigation is whether some of the illicit money went to Roh Gun-pyeong.
A former official of the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, was found to have been keeping the illicit money on behalf of the lobbyists, but prosecutors ruled out any connection with then President Roh.
Roh Gun-pyeong, a 66-year-old rice farmer, denied the bribery allegations and said he will cooperate with the investigation. Prosecutors imposed a travel ban on him.
"From the time my younger brother was in the legislature, I have known Mr. Jeong Hwa-sam (one of the lobbyists) who visited my house a few times, but people like us who live on farming can't receive such a big amount," he told Yonhap over telephone. "I haven't done anything to let people down."
Roh Moo-hyun took office in 2003 on a pledge of "clean politics," seeking a break with his predecessors whose ethical image was often shattered by their sons' influence-pedaling scandals.
Roh's children largely stayed out of public sight, but his brother often made headlines with scandals. In 2004, he was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspension and fined 6 million won for taking bribes from the head of Daewoo Construction. The Daewoo Construction chief, Nam Sang-kook, jumped into the Han River after then President Roh publicly shamed him during a press conference broadcast nationwide.
The Roh brothers now live in their rural hometown, Bonghwa village in South Gyeongsang Province, separately.