By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff reporter
Prosecutors raided a bank branch office and arrested its former chief, Thursday, on suspicions of receiving a kickback from a construction firm whose owner has been investigated for allegedly providing 900 million won in illegal political funds to former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook.
The investigation comes at a sensitive time as Han is now running in the Seoul mayoral race on the main opposition Democratic Party's (DP) ticket.
Despite Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu's pledge to suspend a criminal investigation of Han until after the June 2 local elections, this latest move is raising suspicions that investigators are trying to sway public opinion in favor of the governing party candidate, incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon.
Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office searched a bank branch in the capital and secured loan documents and computer hard drives. They also obtained and executed a search warrant for the office of the former branch manager, identified only by his surname Kim, and took him into custody.
The prosecution suspects Kim may have received 200 million won in bribes from the construction company and engaged in other illicit activities in exchange for extending loans to the firm. Prosecutors say the investigation is only into Kim's wrongdoing and has nothing to do with Han.
On April 8, investigators raided the offices of the builder and its subsidiary in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, over suspicions that its owner, identified by his last name Han, provided bribes of up to 900 million won to the former prime minister on four separate occasions since March 2007. They seized the company's accounting books and computer hard drives, which they hope would prove Han Myeong-sook took the bribes.
Last December, the prosecution indicted Han on charges of receiving $50,000 from Kwak Young-wook, the former CEO of Korea Express, while she was in office in exchange for using her influence to get him the top post at the state-run Korea Coal Corp.
But on April 9, the Seoul Central District Court found Han not guilty of bribery charges, questioning the credibility of Kwak's testimony that he had handed $50,000 to her.
The court ruling provided a boost to Han's candidacy for Seoul mayor in the upcoming local elections. On May 6, she won the DP primary by defeating her only opponent, former lawmaker Lee Kye-ahn. Since her nomination, the Seoul mayoral race has boiled down to a duel between incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the governing Grand National Party and Han.
In response to the prosecution's latest probe against the DP's Seoul mayoral candidate, the opposition party officials called it a "politically-motivated retaliatory investigation," accusing investigators of attempting to damage the former prime minister's character in the run-up to the June 2 local elections.
In a hurriedly arranged press conference on Thursday, Han's chief campaign manager Lee Hae-chan blasted the prosecution, saying that investigators were doing everything they can to prevent Han from being elected Seoul mayor.