By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Former first lady Kwon Yang-sook attempted to buy a house in the United States for her son with $400,000 given to her by Park Yeon-cha, the disgraced CEO of shoemaker Taekwang.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun's aides said Wednesday that the house purchase issue was made through Roh's daughter without the son's knowledge.
The confession came a day after prosecutors said they had uncovered another money transaction between Park and the Roh family in addition to the $1 million which Kwon claimed to have borrowed from him to repay a debt and pay for the children's overseas living costs.
Roh's aides said that Kwon wanted her son, Geon-ho, who was studying in the United States in 2007, to live in the country after university rather than return to Korea. She then proposed Geon-ho buy a house there, but he refused.
Kwon instead had her daughter, Jeong-yeon, who was also in the United States with her husband, search for a house on Geon-ho's behalf. The daughter made a deal on a house in New Jersey, and Park wired $400,000 to her for a guarantee deposit in September 2007, they said. The price of the house was $1.6 million.
But the family canceled the contract, because Geon-ho opposed the purchase again after learning about it months later and his company posted him to San Diego, not New Jersey, after his studies finished.
Roh's aides claimed that the money was part of the $1 million ``loan'' from Park.
``I guess Kwon could not talk about the overseas money remittance to prosecutors, because her daughter was involved and Park testified earlier that he delivered $1 million in full to the Roh family in Korea. But he gave $600,000 in cash and the wiring of $400,000 was already planned,'' Moon Jae-in, Roh's former secretary, said.
However, the prosecution insists that the money was separate from the $1 million.
Park testified that after Roh called him in June 2007 to demand $1 million, he hurriedly converted some one billion won into $1 million, put the cash in a suitcase and delivered it to Roh's former secretary Chung Sang-moon.
``We secured the foreign exchange record along with Chung's testimony that he counted the cash to confirm it was $1 million. Chung also said he asked Park to wire $400,000 to the bank account of a U.S. realtor,'' a prosecutor said.
In the meantime, the prosecution sought a three-year jail term and a 200-million-won fine for Choo Bu-ghil, former secretary to President Lee Myung-bak, on charges of receiving 200 million won from Park in return for helping the latter's firm avoid a tax audit.
Choo said that he sought influence from Grand National Party lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, who is President Lee's brother, and Rep. Chung Doo-un but they refused his request.