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186051
Thu, 06/02/2011 - 11:57
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FSC official grilled over bank scandal


(ATTN: UPDATES with legislation minister's bribery allegations in last three paras)
SEOUL, June 2 (Yonhap) -- A high-ranking official of the country's financial regulator on Thursday appeared before prosecutors to face questioning over his alleged involvement in a snowballing savings bank scandal.
Kim Gwang-soo, commissioner of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) arrived at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (SPO) in southern Seoul without an attorney. The FIU is an affiliate organization of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country's financial rule-making body.
"I'll explain all (to prosecutors) to leave no misunderstanding," Kim told reporters upon arrival.



On Wednesday, prosecutors raided his office and confiscated related materials to determine whether he took tens of millions of won in bribes from a troubled bank last year in return for a promise to use his influence to help the bank escape punishment for its illegal loans and other irregularities. Kim was working for the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) at that time and became the FIU commissioner in March.
The 54-year-old official is also suspected of exercising his influence to offer business favors to the bank in taking over two smaller savings banks in 2008, when he was the chief of the financial service bureau of the FSC. The bureau deals with mergers and acquisitions of financial institutions.
The Busan Savings Bank scandal has jolted the nation for months since the bank was accused of tipping off its employees' relatives and VIP customers about its impending suspension in February so as to help them withdraw their deposits in advance.
The bank was later found to have engaged in extending illegal loans to large shareholders and other financial irregularities involving 7 trillion won (US$6.47 billion) in total, leading its chairman, Park Yeon-ho, and several major shareholders to be prosecuted.
Prosecutors have so far arrested or jailed more than 10 former and current ranking Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) officials for their alleged dark connections with the bank. Kim was the first senior FSC official grilled over the bank scandal, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said they will consider seeking a warrant to arrest Kim if the allegations are confirmed to be true.
The prosecution's probe into the financial authorities picked up speed after Eun Jin-soo, a former state auditor and aide to President Lee Myung-bak, was detained on Tuesday for questioning over allegations that he received bribes from the bank in return for lobbying influential government officials and politicians over the bank's fate.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said they are separately looking into fresh allegations that Minister of Government Legislation Jeong Sun-tae received some 10 million won from a lobbyist of the bank in 2007. Jeong, then a prosecutor for the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, allegedly took the money from Yoon Yeo-sung, a key figure in the bank scandal who is now in jail on lobbying and bribery charges, for offering favors.
"We'll find truth with all suspicions raised about him, although his case is irrelevant to the Busan Savings Bank scandal," an SPO official said, requesting not to be named.
Jeong denied the allegations, claiming that he never received the money and didn't know any officials from the bank.
brk@yna.co.kr

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