By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

Ahn Hee-jung, a key fundraiser for Roh Moo-hyun during the 2002 presidential election, took 500-600 million won in illegal donations from Lotte Group, the prosecution said on Wednesday.

``We have statements from Lotte officials that they gave Ahn illegal political funds, and the amount doesn’t exceed 1 billion won,’’ prosecutor Ahn Dai-hui, who is leading the investigation, said. ``We have been looking into Ahn’s money from suspicious sources. Most of the money appears to have originated from Lotte.’’

The claims came one day after the prosecution said Yeo Taik-soo, a Chong Wa Dae official and a former secretary for Roh, accepted 300 million won in cash from the conglomerate during the presidential race. Yeo is now facing arrest.

Earlier, prosecutors said Roh’s camp took about 1.6 billion won in campaign donations from officials at SK and Hyundai Motor. Roh’s aides have claimed it was a legal donation because they issued proper receipts for the money in accordance with the laws.

With claims against Ahn and Yeo, prosecutors are showing signs of taking an aggressive approach to disclose the relations between Roh’s camp and the top family-controlled business groups in 2002.

The prosecution earlier announced the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) collected a total of about 80 billion won from the five largest conglomerates before the election, including 37 billion won from Samsung Group. The party has accused the prosecution of carrying out a biased investigation, calling for more scrutiny on Roh’s fundraising activities during the 2002 campaigns.

Ahn, 39, a former confident of Roh, led fundraising campaigns in 2002 along with Choi Do-sul and Lee Kwang-jae, who served in the presidential office following Roh’s inauguration in March last year.

Ahn was indicted in January for taking bribes and illegal donations from local firms. Records collected show about a combined 4 billion won was donated through Ahn to Roh’s camp, which reportedly amassed at least 9 billion won in illegal corporate funds during the race.


jj@koreatimes.co.kr