South Korean ex-president Lee admits taking $100,000 from spy agency
Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak has admitted receiving $100,000 from the state spy agency while still in office, reports said Thursday, after he faced a marathon interrogation by prosecutors over corruption allegations.
Lee returned home Thursday after lengthy questioning as he became the last of the country’s living ex-leaders to be embroiled in a criminal inquiry.
He denied most corruption charges but admitted taking the off-book funds from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) via a presidential aide, Yonhap news agency said Thursday, citing a prosecution official.
Allegations of graft involving the conservative 76-year-old’s relatives and aides during his term have mounted in recent weeks as prosecutors investigate multiple cases of bribery amounting to millions of dollars.
The probe means that all four living former South Korean presidents have been convicted, charged, or investigated for criminal offenses.
Lee spent more than 21 hours at the prosecutors’ office in Seoul from Wednesday morning, and did not reply to questions from journalists outside as he left.
“President Lee denied most of the charges,” the prosecutor was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
“But he accepted some facts. For example, he acknowledges the fact that he received $100,000 (106 million won) of the (1.7 billion won of secret) funds” Lee allegedly pocketed from the NIS, the prosecutor told Yonhap.
The news agency added that Lee refused to explain what he did with the $100,000. He denies receiving the rest of the money.
A prosecution official contacted by AFP declined to comment on the report.
One of Lee’s former aides Kim Heejoong has told the Hankook Ilbo daily that he delivered the $100,000 to Lee’s wife in 2011 when Lee visited the US.
Lee, who was head of state from 2008 to 2013, has previously denounced the inquiry as “political revenge” and said Wednesday he hoped it would be the “last time in history” that a South Korean ex-leader was summoned for questioning by prosecutors.