The prosecution on Tuesday officially launched a probe into allegations surrounding DAS, an auto parts maker linked to former President Lee Myung-bak.

Although Lee Sang-eun, the former president’s eldest brother, is the company’s largest shareholder, it has been alleged that the former president is the company’s real owner. 

The company’s management allegedly set up a slush fund of 12 billion won ($11 million) and evaded taxes. It has also been alleged that Lee used his influence as the president to ensure that the company recuperated a 14 billion won investment in an investment advisory firm set up by Korean-American businessman Kim Kyoung-joon.

Kim was released from jail earlier this year after serving eight years for rigging the stock price of a subsidiary of his former company BBK. Lee was also implicated in the case ahead of the 2007 presidential election, but was later cleared.

A special taskforce in charge of the probe plans to summon concerned individuals and to track the flow of funds in DAS management’s alleged embezzlement.

In an unrelated development, a local daily reported that 715 documents implicating the National Intelligence Service and police in meddling in politics during the Lee administration have been confirmed to be stored at the Presidential Archives.

The documents reportedly include those concerning then-opposition politicians, a report on the influence of social media on elections, and younger generations’ discontent with the government.

According to the report, the special audit team of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office confirmed that the documents were obtained by the prosecution in 2012 during a probe into the 2011 DDoS attack on the National Election Commission.

The documents are said to have been found at a former presidential aide’s home during an independent counsel investigation. The independent counsel deemed the documents -- compiled by the NIS and the police agency -- to be unrelated to its case, and turned them over to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office returned the documents to Cheong Wa Dae in two batches, once in May 2014 and again in December 2015.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)