A business tycoon was questioned by the prosecution Friday over suspicions that he offered kickbacks to a former senior presidential secretary in return for special favors for a school he owns.
Park Yong-sung, the former head of Doosan Group and ex-chairman of Chung-Ang University in Seoul, is suspected of delivering about 100 million won ($92,000) worth of gifts and cash to Park Bum-hoon, who was then former President Lee Myung-bak’s top aide on education and culture. In return, the former Cheong Wa Dae official had allegedly pressured the Education Ministry to approve controversial projects pursued by the university, officials said.
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| Former Doosan chief Park Yong-sung speaks to reporters at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday. (Yonhap) |
Chung-Ang University was pushing ahead with a project to integrate its two campuses in Seoul and Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, in 2011. The plan was opposed by the Education Ministry as it violated a regulation that bans mergers between campuses more than 20 kilometers apart.
But the prosecution believes that the ministry approved the plan later on under pressure from the former secretary. He was arrested last week for abusing his power to grant business favors.
The businessman Park was also summoned as a suspect in the case, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said. The prosecution said it would decide whether to indict him after questioning.
Authorities investigating the case said that Park offered donations and the lease for a shop in Doosan Tower ― a popular shopping center in central Seoul ― to two cultural foundations whose de facto owner was the former secretary.
The ex-secretary was also the chairman of CAU before joining Cheong Wa Dae.
Park is facing a prosecutorial summons for the second time in a decade.
He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, suspended for five years, on charges of creating a slush fund in 2005.
In 2007, he was pardoned by the Roh Moo-hyun administration and returned to his position as chairman of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction. He also started to serve as the chairman of CAU from 2008.
He stepped down from all posts last month after his rough remarks sparked a controversy.
The ex-chairman allegedly threatened faculty members who opposed the board’s plans to restructure the school, saying “it is not good manners not to strike someone’s neck when they have asked for it. I will strike in the most bloody and painful way possible,” in an email.
The 75-year-old also resigned from the post of honorary president of the Korean Olympic Committee.
He was credited for his contribution to the nation’s sports after being named a member of the International Olympic Committee in 2001.
Park, the third son of Doosan Group founder Park Doo-byung, was named Doosan Heavy chairman in 2001 and also served as the chairman of Doosan Infracore and Doosan Group.
Doosan Group is currently led by his younger brother Park Yong-maan.
By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)
