Prosecutors have seized an insurance product belonging to former President Chun Doo-hwan's wife as part of efforts to collect a massive fine he owes the state, sources at the prosecution said Monday.
The move is part of intensifying efforts by the prosecution to find concealed assets of the former president, who was ordered by the top court in 1997 to return to the state coffers 220 billion won (US$196.8 million) that he was found to have accumulated during his military rule from 1980 to 1988.
He has so far paid only a quarter of the total, with some 167.2
billion won remaining unpaid. He refused to make the payment, saying he was nearly penniless.
Suspecting that assets of Chun might be concealed in diverse insurance products under the names of his family members, the prosecutors have seized the personal pension insurance worth 3 billion won opened under the name of former first lady Lee Soon-ja, they said.
The insurance will be turned over to the state if it is found to have been purchased with the former president's money, sources said.
It marks the first time that cashable assets of Chun's family have been seized since the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office formed a task force in May to collect the unpaid fines.
The investigation into Chun's assets has been gaining traction recently since the National Assembly passed a bill in June aimed at extending the statute of limitations on forfeiting and imposing fines on public officials' illegal wealth to 10 years from the current three.
Under the revised law, Chun will be required to pay the remainder of his fines by October 2020, not October of this year.
Last week, a team of 90 prosecutors, tax collectors and police investigators raided Chun's residence in western Seoul to search for hidden assets such as paintings, porcelain and expensive artifacts.
Prosecutors said they will try to determine the authenticity of some 500 pieces of art obtained from Chun's house and the head office of a publishing house run by his eldest son, Chun Jae-kook.
Among the pieces of art are works believed to be by 48 famous artists including South Korean painters Cheon Kyoung-ja and Kim Jong-hak, Irish-born British painter Francis Bacon, and Italian sculptor Mauro Staccioli.
If these pieces are authentic, their combined value is expected to reach up to tens of millions of dollars.
On Monday, the prosecution office raided the residence and offices of one of Chun's close aides, who is suspected of acting as a proxy to purchase expensive artworks for the former president and his family.
A team of prosecutors and investigators seized documents and accounting books at three different sites across the country.
Prosecutors also suspect that the aide managed the former president's assets allegedly hidden in borrowed-name bank accounts.
The 1979 military coup propelled Chun, then an army major general, into a power vacuum created by the assassination of former President Park Chung-hee, the father of the current president, Park Geun-hye.
Meanwhile, former President Roh Tae-woo, who replaced Chun as president, was also ordered by the top court to pay back 260 billion won that he was found to have stashed away during his rule.He has some 23 billion won left to be paid, according to government officials. (Yonhap News)
