Former Chief of Naval Operations Jung Ok-geun was taken into custody Saturday on charges of receiving kickbacks from local shipbuilders for granting favors in the Navy procurement programs.

The arrest warrant was issued by Seoul Central District Court.

The 62-year-old is believed to have received about 770 million ($702,000) from STX Engine and STX Offshore and Shipbuilding, according to a government task force on military corruption. The bribe was allegedly made in exchange for helping the companies win supplying contracts for engines and ships in 2008.

The transaction was made via a yacht company of which Jung’s son is a majority shareholder, according to investigators. The junior Jung held a yacht competition at a fleet review hosted by the Navy in October 2008, where the two affiliates of STX Group handed his company 380 million won as “advertisement fees.”

Investigators took Jung and his son into custody on Wednesday and questioned him whether there were any strings attached to the payment. They believe Jung demanded the money through a man surnamed Yun, who was at the time an outside director of STX.

Jung had denied the accusations, but investigators said they had acquired testimony to back the charges from Yun and other former high-ranking officials of STX.

This is not the first time Jung has been accused of wrongdoing; in 2012, a local court sentenced him to a two year prison term suspended for three years on charge of embezzling the Navy’s welfare fund while he held the top post. Jung served as the Navy’s chief of naval operations for two years from March 2008.

He became the highest profile military personnel to be arrested since a pan-government probe into Korea’s military defense acquisition programs kicked off in November. The ongoing probe has uncovered rampant corruption links between defense firms and the military.

Last week, a former Navy rear admiral under investigation for his alleged involvement in a graft case jumped into Seoul’s Han River in an apparent suicide attempt. His body is yet to be found.

“Investigations on these corruption cases cannot be concluded as just wrongdoings of a few high-ranking officials, and must be used as a chance to stamp out systematic corruption within the military,” the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy said Sunday in a public statement.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)