Posco chairman Kwon Oh-joon has been ordered to face an interrogation by prosecutors over allegations that the associates of President Park Geun-hye's longtime friend had extorted shares in an ad firm.
As a witness, Kwon was asked to appear at the office of prosecutors Friday for questioning about Poreka, an ad firm affiliated with Posco.
The interrogation is part of a probe into corruption involving Cha Eun-taek, a close associate of Choi Soon-sil at the center of a massive corruption scandal.
Cha, 47, was detained this week on suspicion of having forced the owner of an ad firm to hand over its ownership to a company run by him, with the help of a presidential aide arrested earlier.
The music video director gained reputation for making hundreds of TV ads and music videos for K-pop singers including Psy and Big Bang. He has been dubbed "crown prince" in South Korea's culture circles because of his far-reaching influence in many government-sponsored cultural projects.
Cha is also suspected of pulling strings in setting up and running two public foundations created with cash donations from dozens of conglomerates.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com