South Korean prosecutors raided the SK E&C headquarters in Seoul on Friday on suspicion that the construction company bribed a former official of the United States Forces Korea to win a contract to build infrastructure for the American military base in Pyeongtaek.
The prosecution conducted a search-and-seize operations on the SK E&C headquarters over allegations that it provided bribes worth 3.2 billion won ($2.94 million) to the USFK official involved in the construction project.
Korean investigators suspect that SK E&C created slush funds through a subcontractor run by a former South Korean military officer, and bribed the USFK official in charge of the project.
In 2008, SK E&C won a 460 billion won contract to build infrastructure including road, water, sewage and power systems for the American army base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province which spans across 2.32 million square meters.
Prosecutors had raided SK E&C headquarters and the construction site in Pyeongtaek over similar charges in 2015, but had to halt the investigation as the USFK official fled to the US. The official was captured in Hawaii and indicted by US federal prosecutors in September this year, according to news reports.
By Sohn Ji-young (
jys@heraldcorp.com)
