Lee Hee-Geon former Chairperson of Kansai Dragon Bank Arrested by Japanese Police for the Suspicion of Illegal Loans

Japanese Osaka police arrested 7 former managers on the 25th for breach of trust including Lee Hee-Geon (84) former chairperson, Lee Seung-Jae (54) former vice chairperson, Lee Jung-Rim (61) former representative of Kansai Dragon Bank, which is the largest credit union of Korean in Japan.

According to police, Mr. Lee former chairperson is suspected to have provided its affiliated company Koma Development Co. that runs golf green with 2 billion yen from September 1997 till November even though he had known that it was insolvent. Police found out that total loans without mortgages reached 5.5 billion yen, and is collecting evidences to prove the suspicion of breach of trust for the rest 3.5 billion yen.

Koma Development Co. is the company that runs Koma CC in Nara prefecture, and Mr. Lee was the chairperson until March of last year. Koma CC took a loan of 7 billion yen from Shinhan Bank in Korea in 1996 and paid 3.8 billion yen back. The company security price was only 3 billion yen when it practically bankrupted in April last year.

ksshim@donga.com