Prosecutors have requested a warrant to arrest Taekwang Group chairman Lee Ho-jin on charges of creating a slush fund with company money, officials said Wednesday.

The 49-year-old Lee is suspected of pocketing 42.4 billion won (US$38 million) of company money by padding out deals and paychecks, and causing financial damage to his company by buying affiliate companies' shares and golf clubs located around the country under market prices, the Seoul Western Prosecutors' Office said.

   He is also accused of evading taxes and creating secret funds of 300 billion won in accounts and stocks under company employees' names to lobby influential figures to get business favors, prosecutors noted.

   The latest development comes after investigators repeatedly summoned Lee and his 82-year-old mother, believed to have managed company funds, earlier this month for questioning regarding the allegations.

   Taekwang Group, the nation's 40th largest family-owned business, has been under suspicion of lobbying political figures to win a cable TV channel license from the state broadcasting authority, but it failed to win broadcasting rights in a bidding announced last month.