Suspect Paid Legislator

Lee Yong-ho, chairman of the G&G Group and the central figure in a growing financial scandal involving high officials, told the National Assembly on Thursday that he gave 10 million won ($7,700) to Representative Park Byung-yoon of the governing Millennium Democratic Party.

Mr. Lee also said he met with Representative Kang Un-tae of the same party to voice his complaints against the Financial Supervisory Service.

During the parliamentary hearing on the Financial Supervisory Service on Thursday, Mr. Lee told lawmakers he contacted Mr. Kang because he is in charge of economic affairs at the ruling party and he knew Mr. Kang from his days as mayor of Kwangju.

Mr. Kang said that during a visit to his office a couple of months ago, Mr. Lee told him that he was being investigated by the Financial Supervisory Service but had not asked for any favors.

Mr. Park admitted that he received money from Mr. Lee but that it was a legal political contribution and was not given in exchange for a favor.

Mr. Lee also said he knows Kim Hyung-yoon "very well." Mr. Kim, a former officer at the National Intelligence Service, was convicted of taking 50 million won from a mutual savings and finance company in return for lobbying the Financial Supervisory Service to overlook its illegal practices.

Representative Lee Sung-hun of the opposition Grand National Party said, citing a document submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service, that another Intelligence Service official is an unofficial adviser to the board of Samae Indus, one of Lee Yong-ho's companies. Representative Lee said that is an indication of the extent of Mr. Lee's personal connections at the intelligence agency.

Meanwhile, Representative Chung Hyung-keun of the main opposition Grand National Party said Friday that the director general of the National Intelligence Service, Shin Kuhn, told him during the hearing Thursday that his agency participated in January in an attempt to salvage a sunken ship. The salvage project is the same one that Lee Yong-ho allegedly used to buoy the share price of some of the companies that he acquired.

On Friday, Lee Yong-ho told lawmakers that he did not know about the intelligence agency's involvement in the ship-salvaging project.

by Kang Min-seok