Controversy was brewing as prosecutors asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for a cousin of President Lee Myung-bak’s wife on charges of simple fraud, without charging her for violating an election law for public posts. Critics accused the prosecution of trying to minimize the case.

On July 31, the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office asked the court to issue a warrant for the arrest of Kim Ok-hee, the 74-year-old female cousin of First Lady Kim Yoon-ok on allegations of fraud, on the ground that she received a total of 3.03 billion won (US$ 3 million) from Kim Jong-won, a 67-year-old executive of a bus transportation cooperative, in February and March. At that time, the cousin allegedly took the money to help the executive win a proportional representative parliamentary seat for the ruling Grand National Party before parliamentary elections in April.

Under a new clause of the election law, which came into force in February, any person who gives or takes money for the nomination of candidates for the National Assembly elections will receive a criminal punishment. In addition, the Article 47 Clause No. 2 of Election Law allows prosecutors to seek a criminal punishment against a person who allegedly takes money and even makes a promise related to the nomination.

In fact, in May prosecutors indicted a 55-year-old person, who is only identified as a surname Won, for violating of the toughened clause of election law. Won was accused of allegedly asking 1.5 billion won in return for the nomination of a proportional representative seat. Won, who didn’t receive money, but promised to guarantee the nomination, was arrested.

Accordingly, attention has been focused on why the prosecution issued an arrest warrant against Kim Ok-hee, who promised to guarantee the nomination and took the money, on charges of fraud, instead of a violation of election law. “A fraud charge was applied to Kim Ok-hee and others because she said that she had no ability to engage in the nomination and denied that she promised to guarantee the nomination,” an official at the prosecution said. “The punishment for fraud under the Law on the Punishment of Particular Economic Crime is heavier than that of the Election Law,” the official said.

A person who violates the Law on the Punishment of Particular Economic Crime and receives money ranging from 500 million won to five billion won would get a prison term of more than three years. In comparison, a person who violates the Article 47 Clause No. 2 of Election Law would get a jail term of less than five years. However, as Kim Ok-hee told the prosecution, if she returned 2.5 billion won out of 3.03 billion won to the accuser, judges could reduce her sentence. In addition, if the accuser doesn’t want judges to punish Kim Ok-hee, her punishment will become more lenient.

Above all things, a fraud charge will allow Kim Jong-won, who allegedly gave money to Kim Ok-hee for the nomination, to avoid a criminal punishment. While Kim Jong-won had allegedly given a large amount of money to apparently win the nomination, he wasn’t arrested and no search was carried out against him. “If the case comes to an end with a fraud, Kim (Jong-won) will become an accuser. So, it would be difficult for him to receive a criminal punishment,” the prosecution official said.

There are criticisms that the prosecution applied a fraud charge to Kim Ok-hee to prevent the case from spreading to the presidential office of Blue House and the GNP. An official at the prosecution, who asked not to be named, said, “It’s difficult to understand because a fraud charge was applied (to Kim Ok-hee), citing only a statement of no will for the nomination, even if a person related to the President took money related to the nomination from the GNP.”

Kim Su-nam, a senior prosecutor in charge of the case at the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office, said, “Although the arrest warrant was sought with a fraud charge, the Election Law will be applied if efforts for the nomination were found in the process of investigation.” Prosecutors raided the home of Kim Ok-hee and plan to analyze her records of visits to the Blue House. Also, prosecutors plan to investigate her mobile-phone records.

Another unprecedented thing is that a department of finance and tax investigation, which specializes in stock-price manipulation and tax evasion, is in charge of the case surrounding a person related to the President. The prosecution said the department of finance and tax investigation was assigned with the case because the department of special investigation was busy at the time.

Woo Byung-woo, a senior prosecutor at the department of finance and tax investigation, worked together with Jeong Dong-ki, a senior presidential secretary for audit affairs, at the prosecutors’ office in Daegu in 2004 when Jeong was served as the Daegu’s top prosecutor.

Also, critics raised doubts because a lead prosecutor who has been with the prosecution for just five years assigned the case. So far, it has been a practice that a lead prosecutor who has been with the prosecution for more than 10 years assigned a case surrounding a person related to the President. In response to the doubts, an official at the prosecution said, “The case had originally been assigned to two prosecutors, one of whom probed a stock manipulation case of Jeong Kook-gyo. As the prosecutor reassigns the case to the department of criminal investigation in August, a prosecutor who has been with the prosecution for five years has taken the case.”

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