15-Year jail term sought for former Daewoo chair

The prosecution on May 9 asked for a 15-year prison sentence and a fine of about 23 trillion won (23 billion USD) for Kim Woo-choong, founder of the now-defunct Daewoo Group, who was indicted last year for accounting fraud and other financial irregularities. The fine sought for Kim is the largest in the nation's history.

Prosecutors at the final court hearing said, "Daewoo made the nation suffer greatly by using 30 trillion won of public funds, but its former head still tries to defend himself and to avoid responsibility." The Supreme Court imposed the same 15-year jail term April last year when it found seven former executives of Daewoo guilty. Kang Byung-ho, sentenced at that time, was former chairman of the group's flagship Daewoo Corp. and was indicted as Mr. Kim's accomplice.

The 70-year-old Mr. Kim, who is currently hospitalized, showed up at the court in his hospital gown and said, "I am proud that Daewoo and I achieved more than 10 percent of the national export in 30 years. I have no regrets because I worked hard, with our nearly 500,000 workers and executives in and out of the country. Before the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, I received permission from the government for all the borrowed capital. No one talked about excessive investment during the process."

One of Mr. Kim's lawyers noted, "In the wake of the financial crisis, the exchange and interest rates soared, and Daewoo needed an additional 17 trillion won. Because of this, Daewoo was hit by a temporary liquidity crisis...The financial crisis erupted due to the foreign exchange policymakers' lack of experience at that time," he said.

"The value of Daewoo affiliates has increased by more than 30 trillion won, which proves that the Daewoo crisis was temporary," he added.

The sentencing will be held at the same venue, Seoul Central District Court, on May 30.