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Former president Lee Myung-bak, 77, who was taken into custody on Mar. 22, first became an investigation target for prosecutors around three months ago. Speaking on Mar. 22, a senior official with the prosecutors explained, “While an investigation into National Intelligence Service (NIS) election interference and other matters had been taking place, it was in January of this year that a full-scale investigation began with the presumption that former President Lee would be punished.”

Former president Lee Myung-bak

Prosecutors said that it was around January 3 that former DAS managers Kim Seong-woo and Kwon Seung-ho submitted statements of surrender to prosecutors and reversed their statements from a 2007–08 investigation by prosecutors and a then-special prosecutor’s team. At the time, they reportedly alleged that Lee had ordered the establishment of DAS and a slush fund of close to 35 billion won (US$32.6 million).

Former president Lee Myung-bak being taken to the Seoul Eastern District Detention Center after leaving his house in the Nonhyeon district of Seoul on Mar. 23. (Photo Pool)

The investigation gathered a full head of steam when former directors of the NIS planning and coordination office, including Kim Ju-seong and Mok Young-man, made statements about submitting cash to the “Lee Myung-bak Blue House” while being questioned around the same time in an investigation into former NIS director Won Sei-hoon’s use of illegal funds.

The window of the car carrying former president Lee Myung-bak is hit with eggs as it travels to the Seoul Eastern District Detention Center after leaving his house in the Nonhyeon district of Seoul on Mar. 23. (Photo Pool)

Internal investigations were launched, with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office first high-tech crimes investigation division (under senior prosecutor Shin Bong-su) looking into the DAS case and its second special investigation division (under senior prosecutor Song Kyung-ho) looking into the bribery case. The investigation effectively went public on Jan. 12 with search and seizure operations on some of Lee’s closest associates, including former Blue House general affairs and planning secretary Kim Baek-joon and former personal presidential secretary Kim Hee-joong.

The car carrying former president Lee Myung-bak enters the Seoul Eastern District Detention Center in the Songpa district of Seoul on Mar. 23. (Photo Pool)

At the time, prosecutors judged the amount of illegal funds passed to Lee as bribes from the NIS to be around 500 million won (US$465,000) - a serious enough charge to warrant detention on its own. The investigation reportedly escalated from there when Kim Hee-joong, who had been aware of Lee’s personal affairs down to the finest details as his “steward” for over 40 years, did an about-face following his Jan. 17 arrest and began providing detailed statements on Lee’s offenses.

The day of Kim’s arrest, Lee vehemently decried the “sabotage campaign to destroy conservatives and avenge the death of [former President] Roh Moo-hyun.” Prosecutors answered by listing the former president as “principal offender” in the bribery transaction when detaining and indicting Kim on Feb. 5.

staff photographer)

Another inflection point for the investigation came with a Jan. 25 raid on the Yeongpo Building in the Seocho neighborhood of Seoul. The raid was carried out after the tracing of cash flows among DAS affiliates uncovered clues that various illegal funds had gone into the building. Unexpectedly, prosecutors acquired Blue House reporting documents stating that Lee had asked Samsung to pay 6.8 billion won (US$6.3 million) in DAS litigation costs. At the time, DAS officials were facing heavy questioning after no evidence of wire transfers could be found despite the company’s hiring of Akin Gump, one of the US’s biggest law firms. With suspicions that the NIS might have been the source of the DAS legal fee payments, the investigation seemed poised to hit a dead end until the Yeongpo Building raid produced a dramatic reversal of fortunes.

staff photographer)

Also uncovered at the Yeongpo Building was evidence pointing to private sector bribery – payments to Lee from former Woori Financial Group chairman Lee Pal-sung, Daebo Group chairman Choi Dung-kyu, and former National Assembly member Kim So-nam. In their warrant request, prosecutors described the Yeongpo Building as a “reservoir of ex-President Lee’s slush funds.” The Samsung Electronics offices were raided on Feb. 8; on Feb. 15, former Samsung Group vice chairman Lee Hak-soo was summoned for questioning about offering bribes. Lee Hak-soo confessed in the process – making Lee Myung-bak’s summons an inevitability.

A group of citizens watch former president Lee Myung-bak being taken into Seoul Eastern District Detention Center in the Songpa district of Seoul on Mar. 23. (by Lee Jung-ah

Lee Myung-bak finally made his way past the flashbulbs as he reported to prosecutors on Mar. 14. The arrest warrant request decision was made after five days of review by Prosecutor General Moon Mu-il and the prosecutors’ leadership. The warrant for Lee’s arrest was issued by a court on Mar. 22 – three months after the internal investigation was launched, and over ten years after the debate over DAS’s true ownership first surfaced.

By Kim Yang-jin, staff reporter

Citizens celebrate the arrests of former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye with a bouquet of roses in front of the Seoul Eastern District Detention Center in the Songpa district of Seoul on Mar. 23. (by Lee Jung-ah

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