Monday, March 8, 2004
'Samsung offered $30 mn as illicit fund in Korean polls'
Agence France-Presse Seoul, March 8
South Korea's biggest conglomerate, Samsung Group, contributed more than $ 30 million in illicit funds for the 2002 presidential election, state prosecutors said on Monday.
In an interim report on its investigation, the prosecutor general's office said Samsung had illegally given 37 billion won ($ 31.5 million) to the camps of two leading presidential candidates.
Of the sum, 34 billion won went to aides for then conservative Grand National Party candidate Lee Hoi-Chang and three billion won to the rival camp of liberal Roh Moo-Hyun.
Roh narrowly defeated Lee to win the presidency in December 2002. Over the past five months, prosecutors probing illicit political funding during the presidential poll have indicted 21 people, mostly lawmakers.
The prosecution has yet to confirm the total sum of illicit funds raised during the election, but Yonhap news agency estimated it at 93.6 billion won -- 82.3 billion won for Lee's camp and 11.3 billion won for Roh's.
The prosecution said the total sum given by Samsung and other businesses could be bigger than stated as the probes are still going on.
"At the people's desire for clean politics ... The prosecution's investigation has cast light on the illegal election funding to a significant degree," senior prosecutor Ahn Dae-Hee told a televised news conference.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2004.