Scandal-tainted university president found dead in apparent suicide

(ATTN: UPDATES with police's provisional conclusion on Im's death, reactions by prosecutors in paras 1-6, last two paras)
SUNCHEON, South Korea, June 13 (Yonhap) -- A university president who served as agriculture minister under former President Roh Moo-hyun was found dead in an apparent suicide on Monday after being questioned over corruption scandals, police said.
Im Sang-gyu, president of Sunchon National University, was found in his car parked at his family grave site in this southwestern city, 415 kilometers south of Seoul, police said.
He is presumed to have killed himself by inhaling toxic fumes from burning coal briquettes inside the car, they said.
"The car was locked, a suicide note was found inside the car and his body had no external injuries," Yang Byeong-wu, a senior investigator at the Suncheon Police Precinct, told reporters as he released the interim result of the police probe into the death.
The suicide note left in the backseat of the car said, "The result of having the wrong relationships is too horrible ... but there was no monetary transaction" -- an apparent denial of his bribery charge. Im also wrote he fell in a devil's trap that was difficult to escape.
The police said his mental stress from being questioned about two different high-profile corruption scandals may have driven him to kill himself. They will conduct an autopsy with his family's consent to determine the exact cause of death.
Im, 62, had served as agriculture minister and in key government posts at the Prime Minister's Office and the predecessors of the finance ministry and the science ministry before taking over as the university's chief last July.
He was recently placed under an overseas travel ban on suspicion of receiving 20 million won (US$18,527) in kickbacks from businessman Yoo Sang-bong, who was arrested for brokering a number of contracts to operate lucrative makeshift cafeterias at construction sites. Yoo was charged with bribing ranking officials of construction firms and police in the process.
Prosecutors also found that a total of 150 million won from Yoo's bank account was funneled into accounts opened by Im's brother, who is a contractor, on two occasions in 2005 and 2007.
Prosecutors were reportedly trying to determine whether the money was given in return for helping Yoo broker a cafeteria contract in North Gyeongsang Province last year. Im, however, had denied the suspicions.
The travel ban was imposed the same day when prosecutors questioned Im over allegations that some employees at Busan Savings Bank tipped off their relatives and VIP customers about the lender's impending business suspension in February so as to help them withdraw their deposits in advance.
Im, related by marriage to Park Yeon-ho, chairman of the bank, allegedly withdrew his deposit from the bank in late January, nine months before the account matured. Park was prosecuted for committing financial wrongdoings involving around 7 trillion won, along with other executives and large shareholders of the bank.
Prosecutors showed embarrassment at the news of the death, saying they did nothing wrong to cause the suicide.
Im was probed for just about two hours on June 3 and submitted records of bank transmissions to fully prove during the questioning that his withdrawal was far from being unjust, prosecutors in charge of the case said.