South Korea - Prosecutors raid finance ministry, Lotte and SK over Choi Soon-sil scandal

ARIRANG NEWS

Published on Nov 24, 2016

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State prosecutors' appear to be tightening their net by widening their probe to various sectors of the society.
Today, they raided the Finance Ministry and the headquarters of two of the country's biggest companies.
Kim Hyesung reports. Prosecutors on Thursday raided the headquarters of SK Group and Lotte Group on suspicions that there may have been influence-peddling at the highest levels in the government's licensing of duty-free business.

Investigators at SK and Lotte headquarters confiscated computer hard drives and documents related to the two companies' duty-free businesses. 

SK and Lotte, the nation's third- and fifth-biggest conglomerates are known to have donated more than nine million dollars and four million dollars, respectively,... to the foundations Mir and K-Sports... set up by Choi Soon-sil.

SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin are also known to have had one-on-one secret meetings with President Park Geun-hye in July 2015. 

Prosecutors suspect the two companies provided the donations to curry favor with President Park's long-time confidante Choi, so they could win approval for new duty-free shops.
They'd lost a bid for those licenses last November.

But five months later, in April 2016, the Korea Customs Service said it would issue four new licenses for duty-free stores in Seoul... and those are to be announced next month.

To find out whether the two companies' donations were a form of bribe to win those rights, prosecutors also raided the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Korea Customs Service, which oversee the duty-free sector.

It's the first time prosecutors have raided the finance ministry since 2006.
If there's substance to the allegations, Choi and other government officials involved in the scandal could be charged with bribery.