The police on Thursday summoned a construction businessman suspected of arranging sexual services for a number of social elites in exchange for business favors.

Yoon Joong-cheon, 51, is a key figure in a snowballing bribery sex scandal allegedly involving high-ranking officials and other social elites. He is also accused of filming them having the intimate encounters. The police have been looking for the video files and investigating whether Yoon used the footage to blackmail officials for business favors. 

Yoon was summoned by the police for the first time as a suspect in the case.

When asked by reporters if he provided sexual favors, he said, “No, I did not,” while entering the National Police Agency in Seoul Thursday afternoon.

Investigators said earlier that they would question him after they secure substantial evidence to prove Yoon’s illegal acts and those of the high ranking officials implicated in the scandal. The list of officials includes former justice minister Kim Hak-ui who stepped down from the No. 2 post in the ministry after his name was revealed by local media in March.

The police reportedly have secured a video file of Kim having sex with a women allegedly hired by Yoon at his holiday home in Wonju, Gangwon Province. Both Kim and Yoon were banned from leaving the country last week.

The contractor, however, told reporters that he does not know Kim and denied all allegations.

Meanwhile, a fresh allegation was raised earlier in the day that one of the nation’s business tycoons is involved in the scandal.

Online news outlet No Cut News reported that the police have secured a video file showing the president of a large company in a sexual encounter with two women hired by Yoon in exchange for business favors. The police denied the reports.

The report said, quoting unidentified sources, that the police have also secured testimonies from the two women who appear in the video. In them, the women reportedly described to the police a body part of the businessman, the report said.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)