Prosecutors said Wednesday that they have apprehended a nephew of former President Chun Doo-hwan for questioning as part of their efforts to find concealed assets of the former military dictator convicted of taking bribes while in office in the 1980s.
Lee Jae-hong, 57, a son of Chun's elder sister, is accused of managing Chun's properties worth 6 billion won ($5.36 million) hidden under borrowed names while running a mid-sized landscaping company, prosecutors said.
Chun was ordered by the nation's top court in 1997 to return to state coffers some 220 billion won he illegally accumulated through bribery from big businesses during his military rule from 1980 to 1988. Chun, who seized power through a coup, has yet to return some 167.2 billion won to the state.
The arrest came as the prosecution suspects that Chun's relatives and his in-laws allowed him to open bank accounts under their names for managing the stashed money.
On Tuesday night, prosecutors raided Lee's residence and office to seize documents including accounting books over suspicions that Lee's firm played a role in laundering the secret funds of Chun and his family members, prosecution officials said.
After the raid, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office put Lee under an emergency arrest, citing fear that he might destroy evidence, prosecution officials said.
The prosecution office also detained another man, whose identity has been withheld, for questioning on suspicions that he acted as a proxy for Chun's real-estate deals.
Prosecutors said they will decide within the day whether to seek court-issued warrants to prolong the detention of the two for further questioning.
In South Korea, prosecutors must seek a detention warrant within 48 hours to formally detain a suspect or they must immediately release the suspect. (Yonhap News)
