CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Crony capitalism--Motherfuckers!  Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:32 am | |
| Daewoo founder’s financial crimes pardoned
BySong Jung-a in Seoul
Published: January 1 2008 13:41 | Last updated: January 1 2008 18:55
Kim Woo-choong, the founder of the former Daewoo Group, who was convicted of serious financial crimes related to South Korea’s biggest corporate failure, was pardoned on Tuesday, along with more than 70 other businessmen and politicians
Mr Kim was sentenced in 2006 to 10 years in prison for accounting fraud, embezzlement and other crimes after Daewoo, once South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, collapsed under $80bn of debt in the wake of the 1997/98 financial crisis.
Roh Moo-hyun, the outgoing South Korean president, also pardoned other businessmen and 74 politicians in his traditional New Year amnesty, including Chung Mong-won, chairman of Halla Engineering and Construction, who was convicted of embezzlement.
The presidential Blue House said it took into consideration the men’s “previous contributions to the nation’s development” and other factors in granting them special amnesties.
Pardons are routinely granted on major national holidays or anniversaries in South Korea.
But the scale of the latest amnesties sparked strong criticism from the opposition party that the president was abusing his powers.
Pardons are routinely granted on major national holidays or anniversaries in South Korea, but the large scale of the latest amnesties sparked strong criticism from the opposition party that the president was abusing his power and destroying the rule of law. Na Kyeong-won, a spokesman for the Grand National Party, said: “The present government has continued abusing its right to clemency until the last moment.”
Among the high-profile figures pardoned were Park Jie-won and Han Hwa-gap, both close confidants of former President Kim Dae-jung. Mr Park has regained his civil rights after being convicted in 2003 of playing a key role in illegally sending money to North Korea ahead of an inter-Korean summit.
Lim Dong-won and Shin Gunn, former chiefs of the National Intelligence Agency, were also pardoned. They were convicted of ordering eavesdropping on political and business leaders during former president Kim’s government. The scandal rocked South Korea in 2005 after a tapped phone conversation between the head of a leading newspaper and a top Samsung Group executive revealed illicit campaign funding for candidates in the 1997 presidential race.
Critics said the customary practice of pardoning wrongdoers risked suggesting that businessmen and politicians would not suffer severe penalties for crimes.
In September, an appeal court suspended a three-year jail sentence imposed on Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor, who had been convicted of creating slush funds. Kim Seung-youn, Hanwha Group chairman who had been jailed for a revenge attack, was also freed by an appeals court which suspended his sentence.
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RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| | Subject: Re: Crony capitalism--Motherfuckers! Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:42 am | |
| - CovOps wrote:
- The presidential Blue House said it took into consideration the men’s “previous contributions to the nation’s development” and other factors in granting them special amnesties.
Oh, so they weren't paid adequately for those "contributions"?  |
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