hankyoreh

Shredded documents filled in the trash bags in the second floor parking garage of the building where the Mir Foundation is a tenant in Seoul’s Nonhyeon neighborhood

Evidence has emerged that one of the chaebol that invested a large sum of money in the Mir and K-Sports Foundations shredded all of the documents related to the two foundations in a single day, on Sep. 28. On Sep. 30, a huge pile of documents that were destroyed by staff at the Mir Foundation were found.

These appear to be an attempt to cover up recent reports about illegal activity that occurred during the process of raising money for and operating the two foundations, which the Blue House is accused of having been involved with. Amid these developments, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI, chairman Huh Chang-soo) has announced that it will dissolve the Mir Foundation and the K-Sports Foundation.

“On Sep. 28, we received a request from the group headquarters to get rid of all the records related to our investment in the Mir and K-Sports Foundations and to the establishment of the foundations. In response, other staff members and I ran all of the records that we had stored in printed format through the shredder and deleted from our computers all the emails we had sent and received. All of this took place on the single day of Sept. 28,” an executive at one chaebol affiliate told the Hankyoreh during a telephone interview on Sep. 30.

“We received these instructions from the group headquarters, but there’s no way of knowing whether such orders were also given at other companies that invested [in the foundations],” the executive added.

On the morning of Sep. 30, Hankyoreh reporters visited the building in Seoul’s Nonhyeon neighborhood where the Mir Foundation is a tenant. While looking around the area, the reporters stumbled upon large trash bags in the second floor parking garage containing shredded documents that had been thrown away by the Mir Foundation. Someone connected with this building said that the trash bags had been thrown away by staff from the Mir Foundation that very morning.

The shredding of documents was reportedly supervised by a newly appointed business support manager who was recently dispatched by the FKI.

“If foundation executives had their employees shred documents while informing them that preparations for an investigation were underway, that could constitute aiding and abetting the destruction of evidence,” said a source with the prosecutors.

South Korea’s criminal code states that a person who destroys or conceals evidence connected with another person’s criminal case can be sentenced to up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 7 million won (US$6,350).

“In our recent independent analysis of the operating situation at the Mir Foundation and the K-Sports Foundation, we concluded that cultural and sports programs have many things in common and that redundant operations in the areas of organizational structure and budget expenses are creating inefficiencies,” the FKI said on Sep. 30. “In October, we will dissolve these two foundations and take the necessary legal steps to create a new combined foundation worth 75 billion won that will span the areas of culture and sports.”

The FKI announced that it would have four primary goals in operating the new foundation: improving operational efficiency, securing accountability, increasing project capacity and strengthening transparency. But since shutting down the two foundations would amount to concealing a considerable amount of the foundations’ illegal activities, this is likely to lead to accusations of being a different kind of destroying evidence.

“People are saying that this is an attempt at ‘foundation laundering,’ and if the name of the foundation is changed, it is possible that the bank account used for the foundation’s revenues and expenditures will be changed as well. Instead of laundering the foundation, they should submit to the National Assembly records showing how they have used their funds thus far,” said Kim Yeong-ju, a member of the supreme council of the Minjoo Party of Korea, during a supreme council meeting on Sep. 30.

By Kim Eui-kyum and Kwack Jung-soo, senior staff writers, and Lee Jae-uk, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]