Bank Collapse Sees Property Up for Grabs

A prime piece of Phnom Penh real estate was put up for auction last week by a South Koran government agency attempting to recoup taxpayers' money lost during a bank collapse last year.

Bids have been made that could see a new development on the site, which is located on the corner of Norodom Boulevard and Street 214, and on which currently sits a dilapidated villa overgrown with palm trees.

On Thursday, a public auction was held in Phnom Penh for the 1,320-square-meter Phnom Penh property, said Steve Park, an official at the Korea Deposits Investemnt Corporation (KDIC) in Seoul. The KDIC bailed out the Busan Savings Bank, using South Korean public money, after the bank collapsed last year amid accusations that it was engaged in illicitly using deposited funds for business deals in South Korea and overseas. ...