Articles about Mun-jong Lee poured out of every outlet at once.

The broadcasters had kept quiet all this while, and now even they were running the news about the breach of trust and the embezzlement. They did not trouble to hide their shock at the astronomical size of Mun-jong Lee's slush fund.

The broadcasters scheduled special editions of their current-affairs programs.

"This is past anything you could call a lapse."

The Mincheong Party assemblyman on the panel raised his voice.

"He pocketed a sum equal to a mid-sized city's budget for a year. It's hard even to imagine the greed it takes. I think a case like this has to be made an example of."

"I feel the same way."

The Mincheong Party assemblyman sounded worked up, and the Shinpyeong Party assemblyman chimed in.

"This isn't something we can leave alone. It has to be held up as a warning."

The moderator looked faintly surprised.

"It isn't often the two parties come to one view, but this time seems to be different. Mincheong and Shinpyeong are both of the same opinion."

"There's no other way to see it."

The Mincheong Party assemblyman glanced at the Shinpyeong Party assemblyman and then turned to the moderator.

"Because this is no ordinary matter."

"In what way?"

"To begin with, the scale is beyond imagination. What has come out already comes to 100 billion, and if you add the amounts still under investigation, the figure being mentioned is at least 500 billion. Among slush-fund cases the sum alone puts it in a class of its own."

"And it isn't only the sum."

The Shinpyeong Party assemblyman, who had been listening, stepped in.

"The variety of the crimes is extraordinary too. Embezzlement and breach of trust, of course, and then the Foreign Exchange Control Act and the Integrated Capital Markets Act, and tax evasion on top — you could say he has committed every financial crime there is except fraud."

"There's one thing that matters more than any of it."

The moderator's head went back and forth as first one assemblyman spoke and then the…