Prosecutors say former Lee aide received bribe from troubled savings bank

SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors said Friday they are trying to determine whether a former state auditor and aide to President Lee Myung-bak received a bribe from a corruption-ridden savings bank in return for lax inspection into the bank.
The prosecution obtained a statement that Eun Jin-soo, 50, received hundreds of millions of won from a close confidant to the vice chairman of Busan Savings Bank in exchange for overlooking the bank's illegal lending and other wrongdoings early last year, they said.
The statement came from a detained bank official who led the lender's lobbying on politicians and influential government officials, according to officials from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
But the investigators refused to elaborate on details of the statement.
The former Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) official is also suspected of leaking information about the agency's inspection on the bank and exercising influence on delaying the announcement of the inspection result until this year, according to prosecutors.
The prosecution has been widening its probe after executives and other major shareholders at the Busan bank and its affiliates were found to have taken out illegal loans to lobby politicians and officials and engaged in other financial irregularities involving around 7 trillion won (US$6.4 billion). The banks were suspended for capital shortages in February.
Eun resigned as a state auditor on Thursday after the allegations surfaced. The former prosecutor worked for the Busan bank as a legal adviser in 2005 and as a chief legal adviser to Lee's presidential election camp in 2007.
Prosecutors are also looking into suspicions that Eun asked the bank official to help his elder brother get a job at a local hotel.
They added that Busan Savings Bank had allegedly gained favorable treatment from financial regulators and built ties to powerful politicians through Eun.
They said that they will summon Eun soon to question him over these allegations.