The weekly South Korean magazine reported that Ban took $230,000 in bribes from South Korean entrepreneur Park Yeon-cha while serving as South Korea's foreign minister in 2005. Park was implicated in the bribery scandal that engulfed the family and staff of former President of Korea Roh Moo-hyun, the Korea Times reports.
The secretary-general has denied the allegations through UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. ""The allegations are completely false and groundless," he said in a statement late December 24.Sisa Journal suggests the bribes were offered to get Ban to help smooth the way for Park's business operations in foreign countries or perhaps to arrange a marriage between his children and Ban's.
"An official letter will be sent to the editor-in-chief of the Sisa Journal to ask for its apology and cancellation of the report."
Park was arrested last year for tax evasion in the amount of many millions, for giving bribes to businesses and for giving kickbacks to high ranking politicians, government and law enforcement officials, according to the Korea Times.
Meanwhile, the Yonhap News Agency reports that a chief prosecutor who investigated high profile lobbying scandals around the time of the alleged bribery heard nothing of it.
"Many people have been calling me since this morning, but I don't know anything about it," Lee In-kyu, former chief investigator at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, told Yonhap.
