By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Three former and incumbent prosecutors, including prosecutor general nominee, have received money regularly from Samsung Group, according to the company's former insider, a charge they all denied.
The three named were Lim Chai-jin, prosecutor general nominee; Lee Jong-baek, chairman of the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption; and Lee Kwi-nam, head of the Central Investigation Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
They are among dozens of policymakers and judicial officials who Kim Yong-chul, a former executive of Samsung's legal department, claimed were bribed regularly.
The Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) disclosed the names of the three in a press conference in Seoul Monday, urging the prosecution to investigate the conglomerate's alleged bribery, slush fund creation, and other irregularities.
After civic groups filed a complaint on the allegations last Tuesday, the prosecution demanded Kim submit the list, saying it needs to screen the alleged corrupt prosecutors before starting the probe.
``The prosecution is unwilling to probe the case, only demanding the list. We decided to disclose part of the list to show that the prosecution is reluctant to investigate Samsung because of its own deep-rooted faults,'' the priests' group said.
According to Kim's testimony announced by the CPAJ, Lim was included in Samsung's bribery list in 2001 when he was a senior prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, and Lee Woo-hee, former president of S1, a Samsung affiliate, was in charge of offering him money.
Samsung also closely monitored Lee of the anti-corruption commission, and Cheil Industries' Chairman Je Jin-hoon managed the offering of money to him.
Lee of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office began taking money around 2000 when he was presidential secretary, and Kim directly checked that money was regularly given to him, the CPAJ claimed.
According to Kim, the whole list of bribed policymakers, taxmen and prosecutors is kept in a secret safe in Samsung's headquarters. Five million won is the usual offer, and if more money is provided, the No.2 man for Lee Kun-hee's secretariat Kim In-joo writes the specific amount himself on the list, Kim claimed.
The three officials denied the allegation, saying they do not know why their names were included on the list. ``If Kim wants to prove his claim reliable, he should present the exact dates and amounts of money I allegedly took as evidence,'' Lim said in a statement.
The priests also disclosed an alleged Samsung internal document, which recorded the wealth accumulation history of the group chairman's only son Jae-yong, including his purchase of stocks of S1, Samsung Engineering and Cheil Communications.
The CPAJ claimed Samsung systematically helped Jae-yong take control of the group through illegal stock and convertible bond (CB) deals. It said the document was made in 2000.
Samsung officials said the regular bribery claim was not true and is an ``ill-intentioned manipulation for the sake of finding fault.''
As to an internal document, they said it was not made in 2000 secretly for Jae-yong's wealth accumulation but made in 2003 to write down his stock purchase chronologically in preparation for the trial for his alleged illegal deals of CBs of Everland, the de facto holding company of Samsung. They said the document had been already submitted to the prosecution during the trial.
Amid top prosecutors' alleged involvement in the scandal, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office assigned the case to its special investigation department. When asked whether Lim will also be under investigation, a prosecutor said they would look into the matter according to principles.
In the meantime, three presidential hopefuls _ Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party, Moon Kook-hyun of the Creative Korea Party, and Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party _ will hold a joint conference today to call for an independent prosecutor to investigate the Samsung scandal. The GNP has so far not commented on the matter.