An executive of POSCO Engineering & Construction, the construction arm of South Korea's largest steelmaker, was detained Monday for allegedly creating a private slush fund, prosecutors said, the latest in a string of arrests of the company officials.

The executive director, identified only by his surname Lee, is suspected to have received hundreds of millions of won (hundreds of thousands of dollars) in kickbacks from a subcontractor from 2012 to 2013 in return for selecting the subcontractor for projects.

Lee also allegedly stashed away more than 1 billion won in a private slush fund by having POSCO E&C's subcontractors return some of their payments in the same period, according to prosecutors.

Including the latest arrest, a total of six people are under detention in connection with a probe into POSCO E&C's slush funds. (Yonhap)