By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter


The prosecution Friday banned Doosan Group chairman Park Yong-sung and his family members from leaving the country as it is set to call them in for questioning over a slush fund and accounting fraud scandal.

The travel ban was issued one day after Park and the group’s vice chairman Park Yong-man returned home Thursday from overseas travel.

Park Yong-oh, former chairman of the group and elder brother of the incumbent chairman, was also banned from traveling overseas, as the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy filed a complaint with the prosecution.

The civic group has claimed that the former chairman had masterminded an accounting fraud at Doosan Industrial Development.

The prosecution said that it summoned Park Yong-wook, chairman of E.SAENG Group and the younger brother of the Doosan chairman, Friday for questioning.

It was the first time for investigators to call in a family member of the Doosan Group in connection with the slush fund allegation.

Prosecutors are trying to find out whether Yong-wook was involved in raising slush funds by laundering Doosan corporate funds through Nefs, a kitchen appliance subsidiary of E.SAENG Group.

They are also probing whether he transferred the amassed slush fund estimated at around 1 billion won ($950,000) to vice chairman Park Yong-man.

The prosecution plans to summon other Doosan family members, including the chairman, for questioning next week and complete the investigation by the end of this month.

The scandal erupted in late July when the former chairman Yong-oh filed a complaint with the prosecution, following his expulsion from the top Doosan post.

His younger brother Yong-sung was then selected as the group’s new chairman at the board of directors’ meeting but the elder Park refused to step down, demanding that Doosan Industrial Development, the de facto holding company of the group, be run by his sons.

He claimed that his younger brother raised the secret funds by appropriating company money to manage his private organizations and control unionized workers.

He also claimed that Yong-sung’s son Jin-won, executive director at Doosan Infracore, diverted and transferred 80 billion won in corporate funds overseas through the Wisconsin-based biotech venture firm Nutra Park.

Former chairman Yong-oh and his sons have continued to submit evidence to prosecutors to support their claims since July that the current chairman and vice-chairmen have embezzled a massive amount of company funds.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr