The late Green Cross CEO
Huh Young-sup |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
An inheritance dispute at Korea Green Cross, the drug maker, has led to an eldest son contesting his late father’s will.
Huh Young-sup, chairman of Korea Green Cross Corp., died from a brain tumor on Nov. 15.
Green Cross is one of the largest drug companies in Korea and the only pharmaceutical company producing domestic vaccines for the influenza A (H1N1).
In his will, the late Huh left a considerable number of his shares to social welfare foundations operated by Green Cross and the rest to his wife and his second and third son. The eldest was left out in the cold.
The eldest son Huh Seong-su, 39, and former vice president of Green Cross, objected to his father’s will.
According to the Seoul High Court, the son Huh applied for a provisional injunction to suspend the execution of the will. It was filed against his mother, Jeong, 63.
“It is not my father’s wish to leave stocks worth some 46 billion won ($40 million) to social services and not bequeath any to me, his eldest son,” Huh was quoted as saying. “He wanted me and my younger brothers to run the pharmaceutical firm.”
The eldest son claims that the will was written about one year before his death in 2008 when he was under medical treatment for the brain tumor.
The late chairman went through surgery in July 2008 and suffered short-term memory loss and a speaking disability afterward. “My mother did not allow me to visit my father and made the will as she wanted when the chairman was rendered incapacitated,” he said.
Green Cross officials kept the family feud at arm’s length. “We have nothing to do with Huh’s will or the son’s complaint. The inheritance will not affect operations of the company,” a Green Cross spokesman said.
meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr
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