By Park Si-soo
Prosecutors Tuesday raided the headquarters of the petrochemical unit of Kumho Asiana Group over allegations that the company had created a slush fund.
Around 20 investigators from the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office confiscated accounting documents and computer disks from the head office of Korea Kumho Petrochemical Co. in downtown Seoul.
The company is suspected of having amassed the slush fund by paying more money than actual costs to subcontractors and redirecting the difference, the office said.
“Circumstantial evidence indicated that the slush fund was generated by embezzling company money,” said a prosecutor familiar with the case. “But it’s too early to say how large it is.”
The company earned a record 363.5 billion won ($332 million) in profit last year after chief executive Park Chan-koo, who stepped down in 2009 over a power struggle with his brothers, regained his post in March last year.