More Bribery Charges

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The ex-president Park Geun-hye was indicted on another bribery charge for receiving billions of won from the National Intelligence Service. Most of the money was used for personal matters, such as her wardrobe, vacation expenses for her three closest aides, and even maintenance fees at her personal residence. The Prosecution also says that Park’s close friend Choi Soon-sil was deeply involved in how the money was spent.

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The prosecution indicted Former President Park Geun-hye on additional charges. She was charged with receiving between 50 million and 100 million won every month and a lump sum of 200 million won in bribes from the National Intelligence Service. The total amounted to 3.65 billion won over the past four years, from May 2013. The prosecution also disclosed what the money was used for. The ousted president used around 360 million won for assorted treatments and injections, fees for 51 mobile phones under borrowed names, and maintenance of her private residence in Samseong-dong. The monthly maintenance cost for her personal home amounted to 10 million won. She also spent over 690 million won on running a dress shop just for her during her tenure. The prosecution said that some of these costs were covered by the bribe. She also gave a total of 970 million won to her three closest aides - Lee Jae-man, Ahn Bong-geun and Jeong Ho-seong. They each received 20 million won as a holiday gift and 10 million won for vacation expenses. 150 million won were handed over to former Chief of Staff Lee Won-jong. However, the prosecution failed to identify where more than 2 billion won have gone because the ex-president refused to be questioned. Park's closest personal friend Choi Soon-sil is also involved in this matter. The prosecution stated that Choi was actively involved in the use and management of the bribe money. Choi's hand-written invoice for the three aides' vacation expenses has been released as well. In addition to 18 charges of disrupting state affairs already piled on her, ex-President Park has been indicted on two more charges, including bribery. When she is found guilty, she is very likely to be sentenced with heavier punishment. Meanwhile, the prosecution plans to take to trail shortly former Chief of Staff Lee Won-jong and former senior secretaries for political affairs Cho Yoon-sun and Hyun Ki-hwan.