[EDITORIALS]Probe MDP election funds

It comes as a shock that last year the election camp of the Millennium Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Roh Moo-hyun, even set up bank accounts under borrowed names to manage its election funds. The deeds that the prosecution announced yesterday were far from those that an official political party would do, almost reminding one of the methods of organized crime groups.
Setting bank accounts under different names allows criminals to hide the flow of corrupt money. Where there is dirty money, there is always a bank account under a borrowed name. A party that used bank accounts under borrowed names to manage its political funds during an election is no different from an organized crime group. How much money had the party received at the time to set up bank accounts under borrowed names?
Yet right after the presidential election, party members had boasted they had prepared all the money they needed for the election through collections in piggy banks that they had handed out, and that this had been the cleanest election ever.
Afterwards, hints of illegal election funds came up several times, such as during the Goodmorning City investigation. Lee Sang-soo, an Our Open Party legislator who was the Millennium Democratic Party’s fund manager at the time, changed his words several times. One can imagine the degree of Mr. Lee’s conduct to see how even his former party is accusing him of irregular account-keeping. That Mr. Lee had the audacity to declare that he had done nothing illegal in managing election funds is astonishing.
The investigation into the Millennium Democratic Party’s election funds is directly related to President Roh Moo-hyun. This makes the investigation all the more difficult for the prosecution. But the prosecution should not waver in its resolution. It should leave no stone unturned in discovering the truth about the party’s presidential election fund. It should also look into the allegations of congratulatory money gifts that Mr. Roh received after his election. Only a thorough investigation will uncover the scope and depth of the party’s election fund.