Top business leaders to be questioned over Choi scandal

By Lee Kyung-min

The prosecution plans to question top conglomerate heads over the influence-peddling scandal surrounding Choi Soon-sil, a confidant of President Park Geun-hye.

Prosecutors will summon POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon today. It is alleged that former senior presidential secretary for policy coordination An Chong-bum threatened a small advertising company, which had acquired POSCO’s in-house ad firm Poreka, to hand over 80 percent of its shares to Cha Eun-taek, a visual art director known for making TV commercials and K-pop music videos.

The prosecution will question Kwon over the allegation that POSCO’s selling of Poreka was intended to benefit Cha from the beginning.

Prosecutors will also question seven conglomerate heads who allegedly had one-on-one meetings in July last year with President Park to discuss plans about donating money to the Mir and K-Sports foundations set up by Choi.

These include Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo and LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo. They may be summoned or face written questioning.

The prosecution will investigate whether President Park forced them to provide money to the foundations and whether they asked for business favors in return. If so, Park and the conglomerate heads can be subject to bribery charges.

Prosecutors have already questioned key executives of the firms, but most officials said they had no prior knowledge of the meeting, and those who did know about it said they did not know what was discussed in the meeting.

The prosecution will also summon Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Joong-keun for questioning over allegations he asked whether his company and family members could be exempt from a tax audit in return for donating up to 8 billion won to the K-Sports Foundation to help it build an elite sports facility in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province.

Meanwhile, prosecutors found that An helped one of Cha’s friends get an executive position at KT. The friend then allegedly helped Cha’s company get advertisement orders from the company.

The prosecution also raided the home of Woo Byung-woo, the former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, in southern Seoul, and confiscated his mobile phone and computer files.

Woo is suspected of having ignored the Choi’s corruption while serving in his post, which is to monitor corruption in presidential aides and high-profile government officials.

It is also alleged that the K-Sports Foundation was aware of the prosecution’s plan to raid Lotte Group in advance and Woo may have been involved in leaking the probe information to the foundation.

He has been banned from leaving the country.