Prosecutors have secured statements backing up allegations that a senior presidential aide was deeply involved in the Grand National Party's (GNP) cash-for-votes scandal in 2008, when he was serving as a secretary for a candidate for chairman of the ruling party.

Kim Hyo-jae, senior secretary for political affairs to President Lee Myung-bak, has been beleaguered by suspicion that he played a leading role in Rep. Park Hee-tae's distribution of cash to his fellow lawmakers and district council members during the

2008 party leadership election campaign.

Park succeeded in winning the party chairmanship in 2008 and dropped his party affiliation before becoming the parliamentary speaker in 2010.

During prosecutors' recent questioning, one GNP district council member stated that Kim, the then policy monitoring chief for Park's 2008 camp, was on hand when he visited Park's camp office in Yeouido in order to pick up envelopes of money to be distributed as bribes.

Formerly, several GNP district council members alleged that they were asked to hand out the envelopes to fellow council members before the 2008 party convention, but rejected the request and returned the money. The chief of the GNP's party council in an electoral district in Eunpyeong district, Ahn Byung-yong, has previously been pegged as the key person driving the bribe distribution and was arrested in mid-January.

The latest statements are expected to help expedite prosecutors' investigation into the bribery allegation, which was first disclosed by GNP lawmaker Koh Seung-duk's remarks that Park greased the hands of other GNP lawmakers, including himself, in order to win support for his bid to become the party's top leader.

Prosecutors have interrogated several key aides to Park as they stepped up efforts to track down who is responsible for the vote-buying scheme.

Sources said prosecutors are planning to summon the presidential aide soon to question him over suspicions that he played a major role in the bribery scheme.

Following the news reports on the statements, however, Kim strongly denied any involvement in the scandal. "My stance remains the same as before. I did not know about the money distribution during the convention, nor did I direct it," Kim told Yonhap News Agency. (Yonhap News)