Access to Telephone Is Cited In Blue House Bribe Reports

Was he a janitor, or a butler well-stocked with inside information from the presidential chief of staff?

The Blue House Monday said that Mr. Lee Yoon-kyu, arrested last Friday for receiving billions of won in bribes from Chung Hyun-joon, president of Korea Digital Line, is indeed a janitor.

"Lee Yoon-kyu was one of the 10 janitors who cleaned my official residence," Han Kwang-ok, the presidential chief of staff, said Monday.

"He did sometimes receive calls when no one was around," Mr. Han acknowledged.

The chief of staff set out to personally confirm the status of Mr. Lee after the Chosun Ilbo, a vernacular newspaper, reported Monday that Mr. Lee was one of the two butlers who worked 24-hour shifts in Mr. Han's official residence. Blue House officials said that no butlers work 24-hour shifts at the residence.

After the chief of staff's announcement, a Blue House official said that Mr. Lee worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., taking care of cleaning, gardening and other miscellaneous duties. With only the chief of staff and his wife living in the house, the official said that Mr. Lee could have answered phone calls frequently.

The newspaper article also said that Mr. Lee received official government reports on behalf of the chief of staff.

This kind of access, despite his low-level position, allowed Mr. Lee to dupe Mr. Chung into funnelling billions of won into bank accounts, opened under false names, in exchange for promising business favors, the newspaper said.

"Mr. Lee may have posed as someone with a position of influence, but he certainly did not handle official government documents," a Blue House insider said. Mr. Lee, who quit last Friday, started working at the chief of staff's residence in 1996.

by Kim Sok-hyon