The prosecution arrested a POSCO executive late Saturday night without a warrant for stashing away company funds at the steelmaker’s construction operation in Vietnam.
The executive, surnamed Park, is suspected of having created around 10 billion won worth of slush funds and embezzling 4 billion won of them between 2009 and 2012 when he was leading the Vietnam project of POSCO Engineering & Construction as its overseas unit chief.
Park and POSCO E&C had argued that the funds were used as a rebate, paid to the builder’s subcontractors.
The prosecution, however, sought an arrest warrant citing evidence that a large portion of the money had been utilized elsewhere.
The investigative agency has recently conducted a full-fledged probe into the case involving the 10 billion won ($9 million) slush fund scandal in Vietnam by raiding some of POSCO E&C subcontractors including Heungwoo in Busan.
(kys@heraldcorp.com)
