KAI vice president found dead amid probe

Police line is set up outside the late Kim In-sik’s apartment in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

The vice president of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) was found dead Thursday morning in what appears to be a suicide amid a widening probe into corruption allegations surrounding the defense company.

According to police, Kim In-sik, who was in charge of KAI’s overseas business, was found hanged at his house in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, at around 8:40 a.m.

Police said they found a three-page suicide note near the body, in which he wrote “I tried to do my best and do it well … I’m sorry.”

His body was discovered by a KAI official, who found it strange that he did not show up for work, police noted.

After returning from his three-day business trip to Iraq, Wednesday, Kim had dinner with other KAI officials that evening. They said they didn’t notice anything unusual about him.

The former Air Force brigadier general began his career at KAI as the head of its office in the United Arab Emirates in 2006. His main task at the company was handling its overseas deals.

An official at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Kim was neither questioned by the prosecution nor was he on the list of the suspects to be interrogated over the scandal.

Kim was nevertheless under great pressure as some of the key officials at the firm, including former chief Ha Sung-yong, were being investigated over various illegal activities.

Meanwhile, the prosecution has requested a Seoul court to issue an arrest warrant for Ha, who has been detained on suspicion of accounting fraud, embezzlement and other crimes.

Prosecutors suspect that the size of his accounting fraud may be hundreds of billions of won (hundreds of millions of dollars).

Ha is also suspected of embezzling 1 billion won ($880,000) in company funds. He allegedly bought gift certificates with the money and shared them with other officials.

Also, Ha is accused of creating a slush fund through dubious deals with a subcontractor of KAI. Its owner, surnamed Cho, is known to be his friend. The two worked together at Daewoo Heavy Industries & Machinery and Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

Ha allegedly used some of the slush fund for bribes to win support for his second term. He finished his first three-year term last year and abruptly stepped down two months ago after the investigation began.

In another move to kowtow to lawmakers and other government officials, who were close to the disgraced former president Park Geun-hye, he allegedly peddled influence in hiring about 10 people at their request. Prosecutors are looking into another KAI executive who is under suspicion of covering up the misconduct.

Ha has denied his direct involvement in most of the allegations.

Corruption allegations against KAI were first brought up in 2015, when the Board of Audit and Inspection detected the inflated development costs for the Surion helicopter.

The country’s sole aircraft manufacturer has been involved in many other defense-related projects, including the T-50 supersonic trainer jet and the FA-50 light attack fighter.

On July 17, President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed his pledge to root out deep-seated corruption in the military, saying it is not an issue of right or left but of patriotism.