Top Mayor Charged in Hanbo Scandal

The mayor of South Korea’s second-largest city, Pusan, and seven serving or former lawmakers were charged with taking bribes from the founder of the scandal-hit Hanbo Group. The eight were among 33 politicians named by Hanbo’s founder as having accepted his money, said chief prosecutor Shim Jae Ryun. Hanbo’s patriarch, Chung Tai Soo, 74, is on trial with 10 other people on charges of bribing top politicians and bankers to secure credit for his steelmaking flagship, Hanbo Iron & Steel, which collapsed in January. “I regret we could not indict all the other politicians,” Shim said. He explained that the others had escaped indictment because a legal loophole gives politicians immunity from prosecution for receiving money during an election.