Park loyalist under probe over alleged embezzlement

By Lee Kyung-min

The prosecution searched a foundation of which Rep. Hong Moon-jong of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) is chairman, over allegations that the staunch loyalist to former President Park Geun-hye used embezzled funds in election campaigns. Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office searched the Kyungmin Foundation in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, Monday, to secure documents and accounting books as well as computer hard disks.

The search is part of a widening investigation into Park loyalists over alleged wrongdoings. LKP Reps. Choi Kyung-hwan and Lee Woo-hyun were arrested earlier this month for receiving money from the state intelligence agency and a businessman, respectively, in return for favors. A district court issued arrest warrants for both. Many more Park loyalists are expected to face questioning soon, including Reps. Won Yoo-chul and Kim Jae-won.

Prosecutors believe Hong gave 1.9 billion won ($1.7 million) in embezzled foundation funds to a man surnamed Kim who led a right-wing civic group supporting then candidate Park in September or October in 2012 in the lead up to the presidential election in December. Park won the election by a narrow margin beating her liberal opponent, then candidate Moon Jae-in.

Hong has been the chairman of the foundation established by his father, former lawmaker Hong Woo-jun in 1968, for more than 20 years. However, funds from the family-run foundation are intended to be used for the welfare of students and workers at Kyungmin University, not by a few members of the Hong family. Hong is also alleged to have received hundreds of millions of won from many individuals who sought to be fielded in regional elections in 2014.

The prosecution’s search comes more than a decade after he was investigated for a similar allegation. The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency booked him without physical detention in 2005, following a statement from a figure who had knowledge of him pocketing 2.1 billion won in embezzled foundation funds. However, he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Hong was one of eight high-profile Park loyalists who Sung Wan-jong, the former chairman of Keangnam Enterprises, said he bribed in a hand-written suicide note before he killed himself in April 2015. Sung claimed he had become a political scapegoat in the then intensified prosecution investigation into alleged corruption in failed overseas energy projects spearheaded under former President Lee.

Of the eight high-profile politicians, only LKP Chairman Hong Joon-pyo and former Prime Minister Lee Wan-gu were indicted. The remaining six avoided indictment due to what the prosecution said was a lack of evidence. The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts’ ruling that acquitted the two last December, further drawing skepticism in the criminal justice system in which the public said it has long lost faith.