Korean prosecutors are tracing bank accounts of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Choi Yoon-hee’s wife as part of an investigation into the Anglo-Italian AW159 Wildcat corruption scandal.
Resultantly, Choi Yoon-hee has become the first Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman to be investigated by prosecutors. His tenure comes to an end on October 15. Prosecutors are tracing bank accounts of his wife and 10 other people with connections to him.
The prosecution has arrested a former Navy Strength Planning Deputy Chief of Staff, identified only by his surname Park, for submitting to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) a fabricated testing report that stated that the AW159 Wildcat fulfilled all the required operational capabilities (ROC) for the navy in August-November, 2012. At the time, no first-hand examination of the Wildcat, manufactured by UK-based AgustaWestland (AW), was conducted.
The navy falsely carried out a test by test-driving an army helicopter loaded with sand bags instead of equipment. Seven people including Park were indicted on charges related to the fake testing.
Park reportedly argued that then Navy chief Choi Yoon-hee approved the selection of the Wildcat as maritime helicopters and ordered him to file a false testing report.
The 589-billion-won Wildcat project, a naval chopper purchase program, was launched as Lynx helicopters are capable mainly of short-haul flights. As the Wildcat has recently failed to meet the requirements, the Wildcat project is on course to flounder.
The prosecution is looking intensively into whether Choi was lobbied or ordered his subordinates to engage in wrongdoing in the process of awarding the contract to AW.
Kim Yang, the former head of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, was indicted on charges of helping AW win a bid to build S. Korean military helicopters in exchange for 1.4 billion won.
