Cho Yang-ho, chairman of Hanjin Group and Korean Air, underwent 16 hours of police questioning Tuesday over his alleged misappropriation of company funds to renovate his home.
The 68-year-old tycoon showed up at the National Police Agency as a criminal suspect facing possible charges of breach of trust and for violating the Additional Punishment Law on Specific Economic Crimes.
It was the first time in 10 years that the head of a family-run conglomerate, or chaebol, was summoned by police since Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yon faced police investigators for the "revenge attack" against bar employees who allegedly attacked his son.
What Cho and his wife, Lee Myung-hee, have allegedly done revealed that they used the company's money as if it was their own. That is one flaw of the chaebol.
According to police, the couple is suspected of siphoning off about 3 billion won ($2.65 million) from company money set aside for the construction of a hotel on Yeongjong Island in Incheon to pay for the remodeling of their house in central Seoul between May 2013 and August 2014.
It was as if Cho spent the company's funds as if it was his pocket money. Even the owners of mom-and-pop stores keep their private and store funds separate, not like this magnate who leads the nation's 10th-largest business group as of last year.
The chaebol have grown to become modern global corporations by the concerted efforts of employees and suppliers, but the thinking and ethics of their largest shareholders remain in the feudal era.
This is not the first time Cho and his family violated laws. In 1999, Chairman Cho was sentenced to three years in jail with five years of probation for creating a slush fund with kickbacks he received for buying airplanes. His daughter Cho Hyun-ah also spent time behind bars for causing the notorious "nut rage" scandal.
If tycoons are allowed to act as imperial managers, their aberrant acts will recur, even destroying their corporations and hurting the national economy.
The 68-year-old tycoon showed up at the National Police Agency as a criminal suspect facing possible charges of breach of trust and for violating the Additional Punishment Law on Specific Economic Crimes.
It was the first time in 10 years that the head of a family-run conglomerate, or chaebol, was summoned by police since Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yon faced police investigators for the "revenge attack" against bar employees who allegedly attacked his son.
What Cho and his wife, Lee Myung-hee, have allegedly done revealed that they used the company's money as if it was their own. That is one flaw of the chaebol.
According to police, the couple is suspected of siphoning off about 3 billion won ($2.65 million) from company money set aside for the construction of a hotel on Yeongjong Island in Incheon to pay for the remodeling of their house in central Seoul between May 2013 and August 2014.
It was as if Cho spent the company's funds as if it was his pocket money. Even the owners of mom-and-pop stores keep their private and store funds separate, not like this magnate who leads the nation's 10th-largest business group as of last year.
The chaebol have grown to become modern global corporations by the concerted efforts of employees and suppliers, but the thinking and ethics of their largest shareholders remain in the feudal era.
This is not the first time Cho and his family violated laws. In 1999, Chairman Cho was sentenced to three years in jail with five years of probation for creating a slush fund with kickbacks he received for buying airplanes. His daughter Cho Hyun-ah also spent time behind bars for causing the notorious "nut rage" scandal.
If tycoons are allowed to act as imperial managers, their aberrant acts will recur, even destroying their corporations and hurting the national economy.
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