NEW YORK/SEOUL, January 21 (Reuters): The U.S. government has asked South Korea to arrest a brother of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on charges that he engaged in a bribery scheme to carry out the sale of a Vietnamese building complex, a U.S. prosecutor said on Friday.
During a court hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Noble said that a request had been made for the arrest of Ban Ki-sang, who was an executive at South Korean construction firm Keangnam Enterprises Co Ltd.
Noble said the United States plans to seek his extradition, “but as of yet, he has not been apprehended.”
South Korea’s Justice Ministry was discussing the request to arrest Ban but “it is not yet a formal consultation,” Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed source in the country’s judiciary as saying.
Officials at the Justice Ministry could not be reached for comment. An official at the foreign affairs section of the national police said the agency had yet to receive a formal request to arrest Ban and declined to give further details.
Ban Ki-sang could not be reached for comment. An official at Keangnam said Ban had left the company in March 2015 and it was not aware of his whereabouts.
Ban Ki-sang was one of four people charged on Jan. 10 in a case that has complicated his brother’s expected run for president of South Korea following his recently finished term at the United Nations.
The case has already resulted in the arrest of another of the former U.N. chief’s relatives, Joo Hyun “Dennis” Bahn, a real estate broker living in New Jersey who is Ban Ki-moon’s nephew and Ban Ki-sang’s son.
Ban Ki-moon, who is ranked second in opinion polls among potential candidates for South Korean president, issued an apology on Saturday in Seoul and said he hoped any cooperation between authorities in South Korea and the United States would be “strict and transparent.”
“I have absolutely no knowledge of this case,” Ban, who has yet to formally declare his candidacy, said in a statement, adding he hoped authorities were able to clear up all suspicion among the South Korean public.
According to an indictment, amid a liquidity crisis at Keangnam, Ban Ki-sang, 69, arranged for it to hire his son to broker a refinancing on the Landmark 72 building complex in Hanoi, which cost over $1 billion to construct.
The indictment said that in March 2013, Bahn through an acquaintance met Malcolm Harris, a self-described arts and fashion consultant and blogger who has also been charged in the case.
Prosecutors said Harris told Bahn he could help get a deal via his connections, which he said included members of a Middle Eastern royal family, and offered to arrange the Landmark 72’s sale to a sovereign wealth fund by bribing an official.
In April 2014, Bahn and Ban Ki-sang agreed to pay an upfront $500,000 bribe and another $2 million upon the sale’s closing to the official, prosecutors said.
But prosecutors said Harris did not have any connection to the official, and after the men sent $500,000 to his company, Muse Creative Consulting LLC, to pay bribes as a middle man, he stole the funds.
He spent the money on airfare, hotels, lavish meals, furniture, rent for a Manhattan apartment and a six-month lease for a penthouse in the fashionable Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, the indictment said.
Both Bahn, 38, and Harris, 52, have pleaded not guilty.
Ban apologises over family in bribery case
SEOUL, January 21 (Reuters): Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is believed to be considering a presidential run in South Korea, apologised on Saturday for causing public concerns over his family members who had been named in a bribery case in the United States.
Ban said in a statement he hoped any discussions between law enforcement authorities of South Korea and the United States - if they were taking place as reported - would be “strict and transparent” so that there is no suspicion left in the South Korean public. He also reiterated he has “absolutely no knowledge” of the case. A U.S. prosecutor has said Washington has asked South Korea to arrest Ban’s brother, Ki-sang, on charges he engaged in a bribery scheme to carry out the sale of a Vietnamese building complex.
South Korea’s culture minister arrested
over arts blacklist in political scandal
SEOUL , January 21 (Reuters): South Korean prosecutors arrested the culture minister on Saturday for suspected involvement in drawing up a blacklist of artists, writers and entertainers critical of President Park Geun-hye amid a graft scandal that led to her impeachment.
Cho Yoon-sun became the first sitting minister ever to be arrested, the special prosecutor’s team investigating the scandal, said.
Cho has offered to quit, Yonhap news agency reported, adding that Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, serving as acting president while the Constitutional Court decides what happens to Park, would accept her resignation quickly.
South Korea has been gripped by crisis for months, and Park could become the first democratically elected leader to be removed from office if her impeachment by parliament is upheld.
Seoul Central District Court said on Saturday in a text message to reporters that minister Cho was arrested because her crime had been “verified and there were concerns over destruction of evidence”.
The special prosecutor’s office on Wednesday asked the court to issue warrants to arrest Cho and a former presidential chief of staff on suspicion of abuse of power and perjury.
The former chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, was also arrested.
The same court on Thursday refused to grant an arrest warrant for the head of Samsung Group, the country’s largest conglomerate, on charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury amid the corruption scandal.
The reprieve for Jay Y. Lee, 48, may only be temporary, as the prosecutors said they would pursue the case.
The prosecution team questioned Cho and Kim this week over allegations that they created the blacklist of actors, writers and other cultural figures considered critical of the current administration, which both have publicly denied.
Park has been accused by legal authorities and lawmakers of putting pressure on the entertainment industry in retaliation against satirical attacks and criticism. The allegations have evoked bad memories of the oppression suffered when Park’s late father, Park Chung-hee, ruled the country.
BLACKLIST? WHAT BLACKLIST?
The presidential Blue House denies that such a blacklist exists. Culture Minister Cho has said many times that she has heard reports of such a list but that she had nothing to do with it.
Park was impeached by parliament in December after accusations that she colluded with long-time friend Choi Soon-sil to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back the president’s policy initiatives.
Park, 64, remains in office but has been stripped of her powers while the Constitutional Court decides whether to uphold the impeachment.
