Prosecution accused of tepid probe into '5-billion-won club'
The prosecution has confirmed that the daughter of former special prosecutor Park Young-soo received 1.1 billion won ($920,000) from Hwacheon Daeyu, an asset management firm at the center of the Daejang-dong land development scandal. The money was sent to the daughter on five occasions while she was working for the developer.
Park's lawyer says that the company lent the money to the daughter under a three-year loan agreement. However, it makes no sense for an ordinary company to lend such a large sum of money to an employee. Separately, the daughter is supposed to receive 500 million won in the name of incentives, aside from over 800 million won in profit from an apartment she bought cheaply from Hwacheon Daeyu.
One cannot but wonder why strange things keep happening to Park. He had served as an executive adviser to Hwacheon Daeyu for eight months on the condition of receiving 15 million won a month before resigning, after he was appointed as the special prosecutor leading the investigation into the corruption scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye in late 2016. Park Young-soo is also suspected of having been deeply involved in the land development project from the start, given that he delivered 500 million won in 2015 to Kim Man-bae, the company's major shareholder, now under arrest, when the project was in its infant stage. And one of Park's relatives, who operated an apartment distribution agency in the Daejang-dong area in Seongnam, south of Seoul, received 10 billion won from Kim without any special reason.
However, the prosecution's investigation into Park Young-soo and other influential figures in the so-called "5-billion-won club" has been running at a snail's pace. The substance of the club was mentioned concretely in taped conversations between Kim Man-bae and public accountant Jeong Young-hak, and the real names of the six on the list, including Park, have already been revealed. It's time for prosecutors to do their utmost to dig deeper into the development scandal with a firm resolve to pursue nothing but the truth.
The prosecution has confirmed that the daughter of former special prosecutor Park Young-soo received 1.1 billion won ($920,000) from Hwacheon Daeyu, an asset management firm at the center of the Daejang-dong land development scandal. The money was sent to the daughter on five occasions while she was working for the developer.
Park's lawyer says that the company lent the money to the daughter under a three-year loan agreement. However, it makes no sense for an ordinary company to lend such a large sum of money to an employee. Separately, the daughter is supposed to receive 500 million won in the name of incentives, aside from over 800 million won in profit from an apartment she bought cheaply from Hwacheon Daeyu.
One cannot but wonder why strange things keep happening to Park. He had served as an executive adviser to Hwacheon Daeyu for eight months on the condition of receiving 15 million won a month before resigning, after he was appointed as the special prosecutor leading the investigation into the corruption scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye in late 2016. Park Young-soo is also suspected of having been deeply involved in the land development project from the start, given that he delivered 500 million won in 2015 to Kim Man-bae, the company's major shareholder, now under arrest, when the project was in its infant stage. And one of Park's relatives, who operated an apartment distribution agency in the Daejang-dong area in Seongnam, south of Seoul, received 10 billion won from Kim without any special reason.
However, the prosecution's investigation into Park Young-soo and other influential figures in the so-called "5-billion-won club" has been running at a snail's pace. The substance of the club was mentioned concretely in taped conversations between Kim Man-bae and public accountant Jeong Young-hak, and the real names of the six on the list, including Park, have already been revealed. It's time for prosecutors to do their utmost to dig deeper into the development scandal with a firm resolve to pursue nothing but the truth.
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