Word: tongsun
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...figure in the affair is Tongsun Park, 41, a Washington-based South Korean entrepreneur with reputed links to the KCIA, who has admitted giving gifts of as much as $10,000 to some Congressmen (TIME, Nov. 8). According to recent disclosures, however, KCIA spooks have been masterminding a much broader operation designed to win special commercial and political advantages for South Korea...
Part of the huge sums used to finance KCIA operations have been obtained from about $5 million a year in commissions believed to have been paid to Tongsun Park by U.S. suppliers of rice to South Korea. Such payments are illegal under the federally subsidized "Food for Peace" program and are being investigated by the Agriculture Department. The KCIA has also coerced Korean businessmen into cooperating in a scheme to cheat the U.S. military procurement agency in South Korea. Bids by Korean contractors have been routinely rigged at meetings that were called "tangos." At these conclaves, the chosen bidder paid...
Still, the Justice Department is expected to bring Congressmen and other officials before a federal grand jury, which could vote indictments if the case is strong enough. The most devastating witness against the bribetakers may turn out to be the chief bribegiver himself. Tongsun Park. Completing a trip to Tokyo, Paris and London, Park is expected to return soon to Washington, where, he has declared, he will cooperate fully with federal investigators...
Democrat Edwin Edwards, a former Congressman who is Governor of Louisiana, acknowledged that in 1971 his wife Elaine had taken an envelope containing $10,000 in cash as a "gift" from Tongsun Park. Democratic Congressman John Brademus of Indiana says he received $4,700 in campaign contributions from him in 1972 and 1974. Investigators are looking into the possible involvement of other Congressmen, including Democrats Otto Passman of Louisiana (the recently defeated head of the House committee that handles foreign aid), Robert Leggett of California, Joseph Addabbo of New York and Republican William Broomfield of Michigan. They are also examining...
Before he hastily decamped for Korea, Park admitted to an associate that he gave up to $10,000 each to some Congressmen because "he liked them." Denying any formal ties to the South Korean government, Tongsun Park also told associates, "I'm not an agent, but that Suzi Thomson-there's an agent if I ever...