JoongAng Daily (S. Korea)
Prosecutors investigating the Busan Savings Bank corruption scandal are now looking into whether Haedong Construction Chairman Park Hyeong-seon is actually behind a development project in Cambodia run through paper companies set up by the bank.
According to prosecutors, Park is Busan Savings Bank’s No. 2 shareholder and holds a 11.17 percent stake in the company.
The prosecution suspects that executives and major shareholders of Busan Savings Bank aggressively pushed construction projects in and out of Korea by using the institution as their personal piggy bank since Park become the bank’s No. 2 shareholder in 2003.
According to the prosecutors, Busan Savings Bank established nine special purpose companies under false names to develop highways, islands and an airport for Cambodia’s Camco City Project, a development on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The bank used a total of 496.5 billion won ($459 million) for the mega-project.
“There’s speculation that Park is the actual owner of the nine special purpose companies and we’re currently examining it,” a prosecutor said. “We’re also looking into how the bank got involved in Cambodia.”
Prosecutors said Park established Haedong Engineering and Construction, a Cambodian office of Haedong Construction, in 2009, and they’re looking into whether Haedong Construction’s Cambodian branch is linked to the bank’s nine special purpose companies.
Park was arrested on May 27 for allegedly taking out 120 billion won in illegal loans from the group’s five affiliates in 2005 to build a mausoleum at a temple in Gyeonggi.
He’s also suspected of lobbying government officials and politicians in the Roh Moo-hyun government to help the bank avoid getting caught for taking out 4.59 trillion won in illegal loans to establish 120 special purpose companies under false names.
The management and owners of the Busan Savings Bank Group, the nation’s largest savings institution, are under investigation for using the corporation to get illegal loans, misstating accounts, colluding with financial regulators to avoid being exposed and giving inside warnings to privileged clients before its operations were suspended Feb. 17.
A Grand National Party representative who asked not to be named told the JoongAng Ilbo that Park was known as one of top three financial backers of former president Roh, along with Taekwang Industrial Chairman Park Yeon-cha and Changshin Textile Chairnman Kang Geum-won.
“I’m aware that Busan Savings Bank and Haedong Construction participated in the Cambodia city development project after then-President Roh Moo-hyun visited Cambodia in November 2006,” the GNP representative said. “There are also allegations that Park was in Cambodia around that time, too.”
GNP Representative Shin Ji-ho said he confirmed Park and Kim Yang, vice chairman of Busan Savings Bank, visited Cambodia.
By Kim Mi-ju, Lee Dong-hyun [mijukim@joongang.co.kr
5 comments:
it goes to say nothing is corrupt-free with anybody in the world, really! one way or another, they do business. there's no such thing as corrupt-free world, you know. the difference is some get caught and other did not! again, only rule of law protects everyone, really!
1:23 AM,
That's is true, but also true is there should be a law to cacth and punish the corruptors/criminals.
And we should hope that Yen Tieng's ACU would be our law-and-order tackling corruptions in Cambodia, or NOT! Really!
Corrupted country doing business in the most corrupted country in the world, Cambodia.
Just watch out for those hi-rise buildings in Cambodia that have been built by south Korean companies, they will fall apart.
1:23,
Do you know the differences between a little bit of corruption, say even in Singapore or HK, and pervasiveness of corruption in Cambodia?
1:23 AM & 1:58 AM
Are you talking to yourself, really?
Really! Really! Really! Really!
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