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Prosecutors are considering summoning Seo Yu-yeol, president of KT’s home business group, for allegedly assisting in the government’s illegal civilian surveillance.
According to officers at the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office on Monday, Seo reportedly received requests from Lee Young-ho, former presidential secretary for employment and labor affairs, in early July 2010 to create a mobile phone account that would not be traced to him. Lee is the self-proclaimed mastermind of the scandal, in which the victims range from politicians and businessmen to entertainers and regular Internet users.
Seo called up one of his phone dealers and made a mobile phone account in the name of the dealer’s child.
Choi Jong-seok, a former aide of Lee at Cheong Wa Dae, on July 7 handed the phone to Jang Jin-su, a low-ranking official at the Prime Minister’s Office, and ordered him to delete the surveillance data before the initial prosecution investigation was launched. Jang visited an IT company in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province that afternoon and erased all the data stored on four hard drives. After the mission was accomplished Jang returned the phone.
Choi in early August called Seo and closed the phone account. But the device was found at the home of Jin Kyung-rak, a former chief of planning for the ethics division of the PMO, during the prosecution raid and was seized.
Earlier this month, investigators secured testimony that Seo himself ordered the mobile phone issuance.
“A substantial number of mobile phones used in the spying case were made under borrowed names. We are hoping those who ordered the phones could be the real orchestrators of the scandal,” a prosecutor said. “But simply issuing borrowed-name phones is not subject to prosecution.”
Seo admitted to the provision of the phones. “I was called up by Cheong Wa Dae asking for a mobile phone they could use for a short period of time. I made it. But I did not know it was to be used to cover up the surveillance,” he said in a press release.
By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)
According to officers at the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office on Monday, Seo reportedly received requests from Lee Young-ho, former presidential secretary for employment and labor affairs, in early July 2010 to create a mobile phone account that would not be traced to him. Lee is the self-proclaimed mastermind of the scandal, in which the victims range from politicians and businessmen to entertainers and regular Internet users.
Seo called up one of his phone dealers and made a mobile phone account in the name of the dealer’s child.
Choi Jong-seok, a former aide of Lee at Cheong Wa Dae, on July 7 handed the phone to Jang Jin-su, a low-ranking official at the Prime Minister’s Office, and ordered him to delete the surveillance data before the initial prosecution investigation was launched. Jang visited an IT company in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province that afternoon and erased all the data stored on four hard drives. After the mission was accomplished Jang returned the phone.
Choi in early August called Seo and closed the phone account. But the device was found at the home of Jin Kyung-rak, a former chief of planning for the ethics division of the PMO, during the prosecution raid and was seized.
Earlier this month, investigators secured testimony that Seo himself ordered the mobile phone issuance.
“A substantial number of mobile phones used in the spying case were made under borrowed names. We are hoping those who ordered the phones could be the real orchestrators of the scandal,” a prosecutor said. “But simply issuing borrowed-name phones is not subject to prosecution.”
Seo admitted to the provision of the phones. “I was called up by Cheong Wa Dae asking for a mobile phone they could use for a short period of time. I made it. But I did not know it was to be used to cover up the surveillance,” he said in a press release.
By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)
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Articles by Korea Herald
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