Ex-Daewoo Chief Gets Heavy Sentence

The former chairman of Daewoo, Kim Woo-jung (69), was sentenced to 10 years in jail, fined 10 million won and levied with a 21.4 trillion won penalty. The 21 trillion won penalty is the largest ever penalty of its kind such as additional charges and fines charged against a person’s assets.

The Seoul District Court yesterday sentenced Kim, who was arrested on 11 charges including committing 20 trillion won of fraud accounting, 9.8 trillion won of illicit lending from banks and diverting his fortunes to a slush fund abroad, saying, “As a corporation chairman, Kim failed to take responsibilities and conduct business ethics and only committed to expanding the company, making the country’s second largest company collapse.”

Regarding the alleged charge that Kim gave 300 million won in bribes to Choi Ki-seon, the former Incheon City mayor, the bench found Kim not guilty for lack of evidence.

The judge said, “punishing Kim is inevitable, considering the adverse effects on society, such as the injection of a public tax to cover the bad loans of financial banks that lent to Daewoo,” and added that though Kim was an entrepreneur who gave hope and pride to the public by doing global business, Kim showed no remorse.

The judge found Kim guilty for manipulating the group’s accounting records, ordering illicit lending and taking his assets in slush fund abroad through a foreign financial network of British Finance Center (BFC).

However, the judge didn’t cancel the arrest suspension that was authorized until July 28 in consideration of Kim’s age and fragile health status.

After ending a nearly six-year exile abroad, former Daewoo chairman Kim was arrested and indicted after returning to Korea last June, but has since been hospitalized at Severance Hospital in Shinchon, Seoul after being granted a suspension of arrest for his ailing health.

Kim’s side noted, “We feel regret as the ruling didn’t give much consideration to the social and economic contributions to the nation in the past by Kim, who did work hard at the turning point in the country’s economic development period and added, “It is embarrassing to hear the unexpected heavy sentence and we will appeal.”

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