By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

The prosecution on Monday arrested former legal advisor to Lee Hoi-chang, the main opposition Grand National Party’s (GNP) former presidential candidate, for allegedly taking illegal campaign funds from businesses during last year’s presidential election.

The prosecution refused to give details of why it took the lawyer, Seo Jung-woo, into custody, but it is widely speculated that he took illegal corporate donations amounting to billions of won.

Seo, 60, a former judge, provided legal counseling service to Lee, a retired chief judge of the Supreme Court, and was one of Lee’s chief policy coordinators during the presidential race.

The prosecution also raided Seo’s house and his law firm in Seoul, and secured financial documents to gather evidence.

Investigators said the bust and raid were made on information obtained during questioning of finance officials from related business groups and politicians.

The probe may pave the way for a widening investigation of illegal corporate donations last year, targeting the core members who managed election funds in the campaign teams of the two main political parties.

The prosecution action comes as Reps. Choi Don-woong and Kim Young-eil of the GNP and Uri Party’s Lee Sang-soo and Chyung Dai-chul are set to be summoned for questioning over the roles they played to collect political funds from business groups.

Prosecutors suspect the majority-opposition GNP collected up to 70 billion won from businesses in campaign donations, while the then-ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) raised about 10 billion won.

A ranking GNP lawmaker allegedly took 200 million won from Sun & Moon Group chairman Moon Byung-wook, who is in custody for making illegal political donations last year. A pharmaceutical firm owner, who allegedly delivered the money to the lawmaker, will be indicted soon on charges of violating election fund laws, according to the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office. Moon allegedly gave 100 million won to former Chong Wa Dae official Lee Kwang-jae, an aide to President Roh Moo-hyun.

The prosecution said it will announce the result of its investigation as early as next week before Roh appoints an independent counsel to look into bribery allegations surrounding Lee and two other of Roh’s former aides. The majority opposition-controlled National Assembly last week forced Roh to sign the independent counsel bill by overriding the president’s earlier veto of the bill.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr