Seoul, June 13: The chief of South Korea's third-largest business group was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Friday on charges of falsifying account books and other financial wrongdoing. The Seoul District Court convicted SK group head Chey Tae-won of “window-dressing” books in 2001 to inflate profit of a subsidiary SK Global, by $1.25 billion.
The court also ruled that Chey wrongfully accrued personal wealth and caused damage to his companies through dubious stock trading.
Chey traded his shares in Sheraton-Walker Hill Hotel in Seoul for stocks of SK Corp. In that trade, Chey's hotel stocks were priced more than double the market value to give him illegal profit and a bigger control over the entire group, prosecutors said.
SK Corp. serves as the holding company of the group's affiliates,which include the country's largest refinery and mobile phone carrier SK Telecom.
Nine other SK executives were convicted of helping Chey, but received suspended jail terms. Bureau Report