Suspicion over President Lee Myung-bak’s presidential campaign funds is growing after Choi See-joong, once Lee’s most-trusted advisor, said he received kickbacks from businessmen to support Lee during the 2007 presidential election.

All eyes are now on whether his claim will prompt state prosecutors to look into the suspicions surrounding the president whose single five-year term ends in February next year.

Yoon Byeong-cheol, Choi’s lawyer, admitted on Tuesday at the first hearing of Choi’s trial at the Seoul Central District Court that the former chairman of the Korea Communications Commission took 600 million won ($535,700) from Lee Jeong-bae, president of Picity group, between July 2006 and June 2007, during the then-opposition Grand National Party’s primary campaign to select a presidential candidate. The GNP is the precursor of the ruling Saenuri Party.
The company had planned the construction of Picity, a multi-purpose logistics terminal, in southern Seoul since 2004 but had its plan rejected by the municipal government for possible disruption to local traffic.

The plan was authorized in 2009 despite fierce opposition. Choi is suspected to have peddled his influence as the president’s political adviser in pushing the authorization process. However, construction stalled and the company went bankrupt.

Yoon said Choi received the money to establish a supporters’ group for Lee but that the money was not directly used to create a slush fund.

According to Yoon, Choi met with Lee Jeong-bae and a broker named Lee Dong-ryul and asked the businessman to participate in the establishment of a media forum supporting Lee for the GNP’s primary election. The broker said that the businessman took the offer as a call for sponsorship of the forum and gave him 50 million won a month for about a year from July 2006. Both Choi and Lee claimed that the money was a genuine sponsorship, not a bribe.

However, political observers said Choi’s comments were an attempt to evade felony charges. Rather than being charged with acceptance of a bribe, he chose to admit to a political fund law violation, which imposes lighter penalties, they said.

Critics said that Choi is likely to have opened a “Pandora’s box” in the slush fund scandal surrounding Lee.

Lee’s elder brother Lee Sang-deuk is currently suspected of having received more than 600 million won from ailing-savings bank management and used it as a campaign fund for his brother. Some other right-hand men of Lee are also suspected of having received bribes to support the president.

The prosecution said it has no intention of widening investigation into the slush fund scandal yet.

Choi will testify in court on Aug. 22.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)