“Seven-Member Council Led the Attraction,” Says Opposition

On February 3, the opinion arose that a “seven-member council” led the attraction of the 65.3 billion won investment fund of Min Kyung-chan, a 44-year-old brother-in-law of Roh’s elder brother. The suspected council members include Min himself.

Another opinion, that one of the reasons for establishing the council was to raise funds for the April 15 general election and attract several tens of billions of won, was made possible by the fact that Min, a personal debt loaner, and Kim, a high official above the vice minister level, were involved in the fund raising. This is fueling the political suspicions surrounding the Min Fund scandal.

“We have confirmed the facts after meeting the Head of the Financial Supervisory Service’s Asset Management Department, Shin Hae-yong, who investigated Min,” said Rep. Cho Jae-hwan of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) in a press conference the same day. “The attraction plans were organized by the council’s frequent strategy meetings, but Min did not made a detailed testimony regarding who the seven members were.”

Cho also quoted Shin, saying, “Originally, the planned amount of the fund raising was 10 billion won. But after Min was found out to be a close relative of Roh, the fund gathered an enormous amount of money, which even surprised Min himself. The investors are those who would not regret their actions even if they did not receive a single won back of the money they invested.”

“The investment was attracted in 0.5 billion and one billion won units, and there was no investment objective or business plan. The current situation indicates the fund raising was for the general election,” said Cho. “The money was not spent at all. It was stored in different bank accounts.”

Additionally, he also claimed that “one billion won was raised sometime in the middle of December 2002, one billion won after the presidential election, and one billion won on February 4, 2003. Altogether, three billion won was traced to have flown from financial organizations to high officials in the president’s transference committee and to active representatives who have closely helped President Roh.”

“Kim and Min, who are in their forties and who are personal debt loaners, have created a tripod relationship with high officials of the government and played a role as a window in creating tens of billions of won. The current investigation institute suspended the indictment for Kim. Kim has to be promptly persecuted,” said an MDP spokesperson. He further emphasized that “we will publicize the specific proof related to Kim at the public hearing.”

Rep. Lee Boo-young of the Uri Party has criticized the dull reaction of Cheong Wa Dae by saying that “we wonder what the Secretarial Office of Civil Affairs, which deals with matters related to the president’s relatives, has been doing while the situation was driven this far.”

Meanwhile, Shin said that “Min did not use the term ‘seven-member council.’ He said that there were six to seven people to discuss the fund-managing with, and that he attracted investments in 0.5 billion and one billion won units.” He added that “Min answered that he did not know the details of the fund-managing since people that he knew well managed the funds for him.”

A special investigation team at National Police Headquarters announced on February 3 that they have placed a travel ban on Min retroactive to the 31st of last month to initiate a secret investigation.

Sung-Won Park Hyung-gwon Pu swpark@donga.com bookum90@donga.com