SEOUL (AFX) - Investigators raided the headquarters of Hyundai Motor Co, the country's top automaker, in a widening corruption probe into a local business lobbyist, officials said.
A team from the Prosecutor General's Office seized some 100 boxes of data from Hyundai Motor's head office in southern Seoul after hours of searching, company officials told Agence France-Presse.
The seizure followed the Prosecutor General's arrest of Kim Jae-Rok, a 49-year-old business consultant, on Friday for allegedly bribing politicians and officials while negotiating mergers and acquisitions of local firms.
Yonhap news agency reported that Sunday's seizure was connected to Kim's alleged role in the merger of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors in 1998.
An investigator alleged that Kim had taken 'billions of won' from a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor called Glovis to lobby then government officials over the Hyundai and Kia merger, Yonhap said.
Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
Kim was also suspected of having arranged illegal bank loans for local companies and bribed a range of politicians and government officials to help him carry out his business, according to Yonhap.
Kim, head of Seoul-based business consulting firm Investus Global, has denied any corruption charges.
jkw/tha/tr
© 2006 AFX News
