By Kim Se-jeong
The independent counsel Park Young-soo estimated the wealth of Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s confidant, and her family to be 273 billion won ($235 million), but said the investigation failed to prove illegalities in the accumulation of the wealth.
Allegations stated her family wealth was illegally acquired, and therefore should be returned to state coffers.
“We kept looking into allegations, but didn’t find any illegality until the last day,” Park said. “We’ll transfer the work to the prosecution so that it can continue to investigate.”
The counsel team made one confiscation request against one of Choi’s buildings in Seoul worth 7.8 billion won ($6.7 million) in connection with the bribery charges against her.
The counsel team said it had looked into 70 people’s accounting books to get the estimate, including six dead people. A major portion of the Choi family wealth came from properties ― they are owners of 178 buildings and land estimated at 223 billion won ― while financial assets are only 50 billion won. Choi alone owns 36 properties which are worth 22.8 billion won.
She is accused of receiving a large amount of money in bribes from Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
Facing trial later this week, Lee faces five charges which were summarized by the counsel team at a press conference, Monday.
The 48-year-old billionaire was arrested on Feb. 28. Samsung denied any wrongdoing.
The big charge against him is bribery. He allegedly donated 43.3 billion won ($37 million) to Park and Choi in exchange for winning state support for a power transfer in Samsung group from his ailing father Lee Kun-hee. President Park and Lee met at Cheong Wa Dae in 2014 and 2015, and Park allegedly pressured the National Pension Service, a major shareholder of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, to vote in favor of their merger, which Lee desperately needed to keep his grip on the company.
Lee set aside company money ― which accounts for the embezzlement charge ― and sent it to two non-profit foundations controlled by Choi and Choi’s daughter who was receiving dressage training in Germany.
The counsel team also charged Lee with hiding company assets overseas, fabricating documents in an attempt to conceal activities in Germany and lying under oath during a special National Assembly hearing in December.
Park also said Samsung’s Corporate Strategy Office masterminded the bribery. The office consists of close aides to Lee.