Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s longtime confidante suspected of meddling in state affairs and embezzling public funds, was facing formal arrest Thursday as an accessory to abuse of power and attempted fraud, charges that critics say carry only light punishment.

Choi, a 60-year-old civilian who has no background in policy and is a daughter of Park’s late mentor Choi Tae-min, appeared in front of the Seoul Central District Court at around 1:50 p.m., an hour prior to the hearing. Choi, who denies most of the charges, did not make any comments, but her lawyer said she would accept the court’s decision.
The court’s decision wasn’t available as of press time.

One of the charges the prosecution brought against Choi is that she collaborated with a former presidential aide to force local conglomerates to contribute money worth 80 billion won ($70 million) to the Mir Foundation and K-Sports Foundation. She also allegedly pulled strings for her company the Blue-K to strike a contract with the state-run Grand Korea Leisure.

The prosecution view An Chong-bum, the ex-presidential secretary of policy coordination who quit last weekend and was put under emergency detention on Wednesday night, as a main suspect. Choi was charged as an accomplice as she holds no public office.

Another charge against Choi is attempted fraud, which critics in the legal circle say contradict her alleged charges of embezzlement. The prosecution obtained evidence that she attempted to funnel 700 million won from the K-Sports Foundation into her company the Blue-K.

The charge of fraud, which means Choi stole asset from others, can be applied when the K-Sports Foundation and Mir Foundation are seen as not belonging to Choi. But a series of allegations suggest that Choi is a de-facto owner of the foundations.

Lawyers for a Democratic Society, or Minbyun, blasted the prosecution for failing to charge her with bribery and instead charging her with abuse of power carrying lower punishment.

Choi can face up to life sentence for bribery. But abuse of authority carries less than 5 years in prison and 10 million won for penalty.

The decision was scheduled to come out later in the day. If the court grants the prosecution a warrant, it has up to 20 days to investigate the suspect and decide whether or not to indict her.

The prosecution continued to grill those involved in the influence-peddling scandal Thursday.

Prosecutors questioned an executive director, surnamed Kim, from Samsung Group as a witness as part of the probe into allegations that Choi Soon-sil forced local companies to pay money into the embattled foundations.

Samsung is the third conglomerate to be investigated over the suspicions after Lotte and SK, among 53 companies from 19 business groups. Samsung‘s affiliates allegedly donated some 20 billion won to the foundations.

Samsung paid 2.8 million euro into Widec Sports, founded by Choi, to help her and her daughter Chung Yoo-ra to buy a horse. Chung, a 19-year-old horseback rider, is suspected of entering Ewha Womans University on the back of her mother’s influence.

The prosecution are looking into financial transactions at Samsung’s affiliates.

Investigators are questioning the ex-presidential aid An for the second consecutive day to find out whether he abused his authority to raise donations for the embattled foundations and whether president Park directly ordered him to help the operation of the foundations.

An allegedly said that local firms voluntarily contributed the money to the foundations. He also said he had voluntarily participated in raising donations out of loyalty to Park, denying Park’s part in the process.

The prosecution also summoned the former head of Poreka, an in-house public relations company for Posco, under suspicions that he forced a mid-sized ad company, which bought Poreka, to hand over its shares to a third party in collaboration with Cha Eun-taek, one of Choi’s confidants.

The prosecution is looking into bank accounts belonging to Cha and companies related to him and adjusting schedule to call him in for questioning.

Cha, who is accused of exerting influence on state-backed projects using his ties with Choi. She fled to China in September amid the snowballing scandal.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)