Prosecutors reviewing whether to investigate court-recognized slush fund linked to ex-President Roh

Prosecutors are considering whether to investigate a decades-old massive slush fund linked to former President Roh Tae-woo, after it surfaced in a high-profile divorce suit involving the chairman of SK Group, sources said Tuesday.

The move came five days after a complaint was filed calling for an investigation into nine individuals, including SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong and the wife of the late former President Roh, on suspicions of concealing the slush fund and tax evasion.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office has assigned the complaint to its criminal proceeds confiscation division.

Prosecutors are expected to review the details of the complaint to determine whether to launch an investigation or dismiss it.

The complaint follows the Seoul High Court’s decision in May, which ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won (US$1.03 billion) in property division to Roh Soh-yeong, making it South Korea’s most expensive divorce suit.

The court recognized that a purported slush
fund of 30 billion won was transferred from the former president to Chey Jong-hyun, a former SK chairman and the late father of the current chairman, and that it served as seed money for the group’s development.

In 1997, former President Roh was given a finalized sentence of 17 years in prison and fined around 260 billion won for corruption, mutiny related the 1979 military coup and other offenses before being pardoned the same year.

However, the reported 30 billion-won slush fund was n

Source: Yonhap News Agency