The case of Yoon Sang Lim just keeps getting better. A top prosecutor received cash of a suspicious nature from him, and now it turns out that a sitting judge engaged in a financial transaction while playing golf even while Yoon was a wanted man on the run. The prosecution is following the money trail and Yoon has had five charges added to his name while his trial is going on. There's just no knowing how far and wide his "lobbying" and favor asking went.
The sitting judge played golf with Yoon even after there was an arrest warrant on him, then readily gave him W50,000 when Yoon proposed he make the judge extra money through stock investment. He told the top official at a regional police agency that he could make him commissioner of the national police one day, and so the man arranged a meeting for someone he knew and working-level investigators the man wanted to see. Businessmen were no exception. Right ahead of the prosecution's investigation, the vice president of a conglomerate went to Yoon asking for his help even when Yoon demanded construction work worth W20 billion. People readily gave him tens of millions to solve secret problems or do financial dealing with this criminal in order to increase their assets. The country feels more despondent at the twisted practices of powerful members of our society than at Yoon's actual acts of fraud.
Numerous politicians, prosecutors, police, and high-ranking court officials exchanged suspicious-looking cash with this man, and still the prosecution's investigation has uncovered nothing convincing about his actually illegal "lobbying." For a whole month, prosecutors have been desperately trying to protect their own about accusations there were illegal deals involving current high-ranking prosecution officials.
Such is the situation, so the people just stay confused because of the allegations that keeps coming like onion skins while nothing is learned about the dirty money. Prosecutors will not be able to accomplish anything with the attitude that everything will have to be looked at by an independent counsel anyway. We would like to see them approach the investigation in a way appropriate for "the biggest illegal dealer since the birth of the Korean people."
The Hankyoreh, 18 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Getting Nowhere on Yoon Sang Lim |
