By Kim Rahn
An aide to President Lee Myung-bak’s brother was arrested Saturday on charges of taking bribes from a businessman for influence peddling.
A local court issued an arrest warrant for Park Bae-su, who allegedly received 700 million won ($610,000) in kickbacks from SLS Group Chairman Lee Kuk-chul in exchange for peddling influence.
Park is an aide to Rep. Lee Sang-deuk of the ruling Grand National Party, the elder brother of the President. The corruption scandal could escalate further depending on how he used the bribes.
“We issued the warrant as the allegation has been confirmed and he could flee or destroy evidence,” judge Kim Hwan-soo of the Seoul Central District Court said.
Park is accused of having received the money and a luxury watch from the SLS chairman since November 2009 in exchange for helping the group avoid being placed in a workout program.
According to the prosecution, the chairman testified that he gave Park 500 million won in cash and had another businessman, identified as Moon, give him an additional 200 million won. Lee and Moon, the head of Daeyoung Logics, were arrested earlier.
By tracing bank accounts, prosecutors found a huge amount of money deposited in an account of one of Park’s acquaintances. They suspect this was part of the cash he took from Lee and Moon and are questioning him over how he received it. Park is denying the allegations.
“We’ll now focus on what Park spent the money on. We’ll also investigate whether he actually lobbied influential figures in financial watchdogs at the chairman’s request,” a prosecutor said.
The prosecution is looking into phone conversation records around the time Park received the money.
Besides the bribes in the lobby scandal involving SLS, Park is also suspected of having taken 150 million won in kickbacks from the head of Jeil Savings Bank, Yoo Dong-chun, who sought his influence to prevent the bank’s operation from being suspended.
Yoo, who was arrested in October for embezzling customers’ money, testified he offered Park the bribes as the bank faced suspension due to its poor financial condition.
Yoo also testified he provided 400 million won in kickbacks to first lady Kim Yoon-ok’s cousin, Kim Jae-hong who is a director at KT&G Welfare Foundation. Prosecutors questioned the director Saturday and plan to seek an arrest warrant for him.