hankyoreh

Lee Sang-eun

DAS chairman Lee Sang-eun, older brother to former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, reportedly told prosecutors on Feb. 2 that he was not the owner of a controversial plot of land in Seoul’s Dogok neighborhood,. The older Lee’s remarks were a reversal from his past statement to a former special prosecutor in 2.

It also emerged that in addition to DAS dividends, former President Lee’s asset managers also administered a range of scattered assets under borrowed names, including real estate and earnings from the Dogok land’s sale. With Lee Sang-eun and other figures named as “key men” in determining DAS’s true ownership beginning to speak frankly and objective evidence emerging to substantiate their claims, the noose is tightening around the former President as he awaits a summons from prosecutors.

According to the Hankyoreh’s investigations, Lee Sang-eun made statements indicating that the Dogok land was not his property during closed-door questioning by prosecutors the day before. It was a reversal from his previous statement during a 2007 special prosecutor’s investigation, when he claimed that the Dogok land was under his fifty-fifty co-ownership with Lee Myung-bak’s brother-in-law Kim Jae-jeong.

This appeared to be the change a source with prosecutors was referring to in remarks the same day by acknowledging “considerable differences from what Mr. Lee told the special prosecutor in the past.” The matter of the Dogok land’s true ownership has received major attention because the funds from its sale were used for the founding of DAS.

Prosecutors have also obtained several crucial statements on the DAS issue from Lee Myung-bak’s key associates. Lee Sang-eun’s son, DAS vice president Lee Dong-hyung, reportedly made a statement effectively claiming that his father’s share of DAS actually belonged to the former president. The prosecutors have also concluded that Lee Sang-eun’s delivery of a bank book in his name containing 1 billion won (US$926,000) in earnings from the Dogok land sale to Lee Myung-bak’s son, Lee Si-hyeong, at the latter’s request, and the later use of the same bank account to receive DAS dividends, provides evidence of the actual ownership. Lee Myung-bak’s asset managers, including Lee Myung-bak & Kim Yoon-ok Foundation secretary general Lee Byung-mo, have similarly made statements alleging that both DAS and the Dogok land were the former President’s property.

Prosecutors are additionally viewing late brother-in-law Kim Jae-jeong, who co-owned DAS and the Dogok land with Lee Sang-eun, as one of Lee Myung-bak’s “asset managers.” A “post presidential plan” developed by the Blue House after Kim’s death to examine the issue of disposal of the former President’s share of DAS once he left office is seen by prosecutors as evidence of this.

In addition to their statements from the aforementioned “key men,” the prosecutors have reportedly acquired documents and other objective evidence and completed analysis of fund flows. They remained circumspect on the question of when Lee Myung-bak would be summoned, saying that notice “will be given after sufficient investigation.”

“We aren’t investigating under a deadline,” a source with the prosecutors said.

“We believe it is important to have a thoroughly transparent investigation. Our job is to investigate [new charges] as they emerge.”

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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