Government Confirms Plan to “Pardon Businesses for Past Window-dressing for Two Years”

The government and the Uri Party made a de facto decision on December 27 to exempt businesses for fraudulent bookkeeping done in the past for the next two years.

The government and the ruling party held a meeting at the National Assembly, which was chaired by Chairman Hong Jae-hyung of the Policy Committee and attended by the members of the Finance and Economy Committee and Legislation and Judiciary Committee along with the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance and Economy Minister Lee Hun-jae, Minister of Justice Kim Seung-gyu, and Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission Yoon Jeung-hyun, about drawing up a revision proposal for the law on class-action suit involving equities that included such content.

When the revision is made, a company with fraudulent books will be subjected to securities class action suit after the grace period of two years, starting from January 2007.

However, some clashes are expected to arise until the final deliberation of the law with opposition against this measure from some of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee members.

Young-Hae Choi yhchoi65@donga.com