This is the first time I have seen a foreign defense firm investigated like this in Korea:

Saab, a Swedish defense firm, is being investigated here over alleged illegal lobbying of a defense research institute affiliated with the National Assembly regarding a South Korean fighter development program, sources said Monday.

Prosecutors recently raided both the firm’s branch office and the headquarters of the Security Management Institute (SMI) in southern Seoul to seize documents and computer files as part of its three-month investigation into their alleged connection, the sources said.

Prosecutors have also traced the bank accounts of Saab officials and the SMI president to uncover alleged financial transactions between the two sides, they said.

SMI has served as an influential research agency regarding major South Korean arms acquisition and development programs since it was established as an advisory agency to the Assembly in 2005.

It was also designated by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration last October as an agency for studying weapons programs, cost analyses and defense technology development plans.

“The prosecution has almost completed its investigation of Saab and SMI and is closely analyzing confiscated material,” a source told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity.

“It is a rare and intensive probe into a foreign defense firm and is expected to affect future arms improvement programs involving foreign manufacturers, depending on the results,” he said.

Prosecutors said SMI was suspected of having offered classified information on the KF-X indigenous fighter development program to Saab or written up parliamentary documents on the KF-X partnership in favor of the Swedish company, in return for compensation.  [Korea Times]

An important thing to remember in Korea is that an investigation like this one involving a foreign business firm may be more for business reasons than for anything criminal.  Look no further then the Lone Star case where investigations and prosecutions against Lone Star were launched simply because they were a foreign firm that ended up making a huge profit in Korea and the Korean government wanted the billions of dollars that Lone Star made to stay in Korea. 

So I would wait for more information to come out before drawing any conclusions about Saab.