Misappropriated Funds

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Prosecutors are finding more and more evidence that the National Intelligence Service provided special activity funds to members of the former Park Geun-hye administration. The prosecutors believe that the Park administration misappropriated the funds to pay for unofficial public polls and to entertain guests.

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More evidence has been found that the former Park Geun-hye administration misused the National Intelligence Service's special activity funds. Part of the funds was used for conducting an unofficial public poll ahead of the general elections held in April last year. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office is trying to find out if the NIS indeed provided 500 million won to the
Park administration to conduct the poll. Prosecutors believe that the Park administration used the NIS's special activity funds due to the lack of other legitimate reasons to use the money. The prosecutors have seized financial documents from the company that conducted the poll. They are finding more and more evidence of how the so-called "special activity funds" had been used. They have confirmed that then-senior secretary for political affairs Cho Yoon-sun received 5 million won a month. She had received a total of 50 million won between June 2014 and May 2015. Her successor, Hyun Ki-hwan, also received a similar amount during his tenure. Up until 2014, the senior secretary for political affairs was the only among the ten senior presidential secretaries to receive special activity funds. However, prosecutors are now investigating the allegation that all ten of Park Geun-hye's senior secretaries received 5 million won a month from 2015. The prosecutors have reportedly obtained testimony that former NIS senior official Choo Myung-ho personally delivered the funds. In all, more than 600 million won had been delivered to the Park Geun-hye administration over a period of two years. The investigation has revealed that the senior secretaries used the funds to entertain guests.