[THE INVESTOR]  A former head of the Korea Development Bank was summoned on Sept. 19 as state prosecutors accelerated their investigation into a high-profile corruption case involving a local shipbuilder.

Kang Man-soo, 71, appeared before the Seoul High Prosecutors‘ Office as a suspect on charges of illegally exerting influence on Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to invest in a local biotech firm run by his acquaintance.

Daewoo Shipbuilding provided some 4.4 billion won (US$3.9 million) for the firm’s research projects between 2012 and 2013, but the funding stopped following Kang‘s retirement, according to prosecutors. 

KDB is the largest shareholder of the financially troubled shipbuilder’s. Kang headed the policy bank from 2011 to 2013.

While admitting to having advised the shipyard to invest in the company, identified only by the initial B, he has declined any wrongdoing involved in the process.

“I have worked for this country my whole life,” Kang told reporters before entering the prosecutors’ office. “I didn’t do anything shameful while working as a public official.”

The summons comes less than a week after prosecutors indicted the biotech firm‘s head, identified only by his surname Kim, on charges of fraud and other irregularities.

Prosecutors also suspect that the 71-year-old Kang was involved in unlawfully giving loans to Hansung Enterprise, a local seafood maker, in 2011. The company chief, Lim Woo-kun, went to the same high school as Kang.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)