A South Korean court has sentenced the founder of the Daewoo group to 10 years in prison and forfeited 21.4 trillion won (€17.6 billion) for fraud and embezzlement in the country's biggest financial scandal.
Kim Woo-choong, 69, had turned Daewoo into the second-largest conglomerate in the country before fleeing in 1999 as his empire was collapsing under more than $75 billion (€58.4 billion) in debts.
The Seoul Central District Court today found him guilty of fraud in securing bank loans, fabricating financial accounts to falsify assets and embezzlement of company funds.
The court also ordered him to pay a 10 million won criminal fine.
"There is a need to show that there is a heavy penalty to pay when you commit acts that betray the trust of economic entities, such as fabricating the accounts or obtaining fraudulent loans," Judge Hwang Hyun-joo said in his summing up when sentencing Kim.
The court ordered a suspension of the sentence until July 28 given his health. Kim has been hospitalised for a heart ailment, and walked into a courtroom wearing a hospital gown and with an intravenous needle in his arm.
Kim has one week to file for an appeal, the court said.