By Na Jeong-ju
A former aide to President Lee Myung-bak is facing investigation for his alleged involvement in the fabrication of a letter that triggered a controversy in the lead-up to the presidential election in December 2007.
The letter, dated Nov. 10, 2007, was made public by Hong Joon-pyo, then-lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) (now the Saenuri Party) and a key campaigner for then-GNP candidate Lee Myung-bak, days before the election.
The revelation sparked suspicions at the time that the Roh Moo-hyun administration had orchestrated a scheme to deal a setback to Lee’s campaign.
However, the letter was found to be a fake in 2008, and there has been lots of speculation about how the letter was written and who was involved.
Hong recently claimed that he received it from Eun Jin-soo, then-legal advisor to Lee. At the time, Eun led a campaign team dealing with accusations by Korean American businessman Kim Kyung-joon that Lee had engaged in rigging stock prices as the actual owner of investment firm BBK.
The BBK scandal was one of the biggest campaign issues just ahead of the presidential vote.
About one month before the election, Kim made a sudden visit to Korea. As he had claimed the now-President’s involvement in the stock rigging scandal, his visit was regarded as a potential blow to then-leading candidate Lee.
Then the mysterious letter was revealed. It was written to Kim by 51-year-old dentist Shin Myung. Shin said in the letter, “Your deal with the Big House won’t change the situation. You would be exploited anyway (by the Big House).”
After Hong disclosed the letter, suspicions arose that the Roh Moo-hyun government had orchestrated Kim’s visit to attack Lee. Afterwards, Shin claimed that he wrote the letter at the request of a close friend of the husband of first lady Kim Yoon-ok’s older sister.
The latest claims by Hong suggest that Lee’s aides, including Eun, were involved in the fabrication of the letter in an apparent bid to conceal the truth behind the BBK scandal.
Prosecutors said they will summon Eun for questioning as early as this week to clear the suspicions surrounding the letter.
Eun is now behind the bars after being convicted in November of taking bribes from a Busan-based savings bank while working as an auditor for the Board of Audit and Inspection.
Kim Kyung-joon, whose English name is Christopher Kim, is serving an eight-year jail term in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, after being convicted in 2009 of embezzling company money, stock price-rigging and spreading false rumors about President Lee.
Despite the sentence, Kim has claimed that Lee was the actual owner of BBK and was deeply involved in the stock price manipulation. The court rejected his claims and an investigation by an independent counsel, which was conducted after Lee won the election, also cleared him of such suspicions. However, there are still many people who suspect that it was covered up by “political” prosecutors and judges to protect him.