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January 19, 2008
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| In a search for evidence linked to President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s alleged abuse of power as Seoul mayor, investigators led by an independent prosecutor raided five offices and homes yesterday. They were searching for proof that Lee knowingly awarded a lucrative real estate development project to an unfit company in 2002. “Investigators raided the offices of the Korean German Industrial Park Co. and Jinmyung Jungjin Academic Foundation and three homes of related officials,” Kim Hak-geun, an assistant prosecutor on Independent Counsel Chung Ho-young’s team, said yesterday after the sweeps. “We confiscated 25 boxes of documents. Three digital data investigators also copied files from computer servers of the two companies.” Lee was accused of abusing his power as Seoul mayor by giving favorable treatment to the Korean German Industrial Park, which won a project in western Seoul in December 2002 as part of the city government’s Sangam Digital Media City development. The company was given the right to develop a core part of the site by submitting a plan to invite research institutes and companies from Germany to open branches on the site. The company obtained loans by using the land as a guarantee. Deviating from the original investment plan, Korean German Industrial Park built an office-residential building on the site and earned more than 600 billion won ($636 million) by selling the units. Questioning the legitimacy of the business, the United New Democratic Party filed petitions with the prosecution in October to investigate the firm’s head, Yoon Yeu-dug, and five city officials. The Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office handed over its investigation findings to the independent counsel, whose probe is to end before Lee’s inauguration on Feb. 25. “At the time, the company had no record of attracting foreign investments. The balance in its corporate account was only 15 won,” the liberal party has claimed. The UNDP said building a commercial building was a fraud because the land was to be used for research and development. The party has also accused Korean German Industrial Park of raising slush funds in the course of donating 30 billion won to Jinmyung Jungjin Academic Foundation. The company denied the allegations. By Ser Myo-ja Staff Writer/ Jung Hyo-sik JoongAng Ilbo [myoja@joongang.co.kr] |
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